W. C. dc K. S. Steef?

LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

PRINCETON, N. J.

Purchased by the
Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund.

BX 8947 .N8 C72 1907
Craig, D. I. 1849-1925.
A history of the development
of the Presbyterian Church

"41 > *» i»*

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRESBY-
TERIAN CHURCH IN NORTH
CAROLINA.

\\V^' ' • * . -I,-

( JUN 16 i^

A HISTORY ^^-J!!:;:^-.

Development of the Presbyterian
Church in North Carolina j

AND OF

Synodical Home Missions^

TOGETHER WITH

EVANGELISTIC ADDRESSES BY JAMES I. VANCE, D. D.,

AND OTHERS

BY

Rev. D. I. CRAIG.

RICHMOND, VA.:
Whittet & Shkpperson, Printers.

Copyright

BY

Rev. William Black
1907.

INTRODUCTION.

By Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D.

It is well to write the history of Synodical Home ]\Iis-
sion work in North Carolina at the present time. Nearly
a score of years have passed since it was inaugurated. It
met with considerable opposition, on the part of con-
scientious brethren, who doubted the constitutional right
of Synod to engage in this work. The plans and methods
of conducting it were altered and amended, as experi-
ence and wisdom demanded. The present scheme of
conducting it, by a synodical committee, consisting of
one minister and one elder from each Presbytery, with
an executive committee of five members of the whole
committee, aided by a superintendent and a general evan-
gelist, is the result of long experience and varied experi-
ment. The w^isdom of this plan has been manifested by
the success attained, and by the fact that substantially the
same plan has been adopted by other Synods. The re-
sults achieved by Synodical Home Alission work, both
direct and indirect, have been m^ost gratifying and in-
spiring. The efforts of the Synod have lifted our people
to a higher plane of giving, and have stimulated the Pres-
byteries to more vigorous endeavors at evangelization
within their own bounds. In less than a score of years,
churches of our faith have been planted in all the counties
of the State except twelve or thirteen ; the number of the
Presbyteries has risen from four to eight ; and the roll of
communicants has increased from 25,000 to more than 40,-
000. Surely, results like these have more than justified
all the thought, money and labor that have been ex-

6 Introduction.

pended upon Synodical Home Missions in North Caro-
lina. But many of the actors in these stirring scenes have
passed away and others are nearing the close of their
earthly career. It is wise, therefore, to gather up the
facts connected with Home Mission work in this State
while some survive who are familiar with them, and be-
fore they pass from the memory of the living. The
story of Presbyterian Gospel progress in North Carolina
will be profoundly interesting to future church historians,
and will edify and stimulate generations yet to come. The
author of this history of Synodical Home Missions in
North Carolina, Rev. D. I. Craig, of Reidsville. N. C,
deserves the approbation of his cotemporaries and will,
be entitled to the gratitude of posterity for his laborious
and successful eflforts to preserve for the church and the
world the interesting facts recorded. Having been stated
clerk of the Synod of North Carolina for many years,
having personal knowledge of many of the events men-
tioned, having ready access to the documents furnishing
information, and having corresponded wath many of the
most active promoters of mission work in this and other
States, the author is eminently qualified to become the
historian of this synodical movement. To those who
know him, it is needless to say that he has been very
diligent in collecting the material, and used the greatest
care to render his statements truthful, accurate and profit-
able to his readers. It enhances the value of the work he
has done for the church to know that he has prosecuted
it with comparatively little help or encouragement, and
without hope of pecuniary reward for his toil. But useful
labor is largely its own reward, and it is hoped that this
publication will receive from the Presbyterians of this
Synod a most hearty welcome, and find a place in every
home within our bounds.

CONTENTS.

Introduction, By H. G. Hill, D. D., 5

CHAPTER I.
A Brief Retrospect of the Presbyterian Church

IN North Carolina Prior to 1812, 9

CHAPTER H.
The Synod of North Carolina from the Time

OF ITS Formation Until the Civil War^ .... 20

CHAPTER HI.
The Synod of North Carolina During the

Civil War and its Reconstruction Period, 30

CHAPTER IV.
The Origin of Synodical Home Missions in

North Carolina, 40

CHAPTER V.

The Inauguration of Synodical Home Missions

IN North Carolina and Men of the Times, 55

CHAPTER VI.
The Progress of Synodical Home Missions in

North Carolina, and the Men of the Times, 70

8 Contents.

CHAPTER VII.
The Continued Progress^ and Some of the Re-
sults OF Synodical Home Missions in North
Carolina^ and the Men of the Times, 88

CHAPTER VIII.
A Brief Summary of Some of the Results of
Synodical Home Missions in North Caro-
lina Ill

Evangelistic and Missionary Addresses :

Foreword, 127

"If My Country were Heathen," Rev. James

I. Vance, D. D., 129

"The Evangelistic Pastor/' Rev. J. Wilbur

Chapman, D. D., 141

''Home Missions the Supreme Need of the
Hour," Rev. S. L. Morris, D. D., 171

"Mission Work," Rev. Wm. Black, 182

The Presbyterian Church in
North Carolina.

CHAPTER I.

A Brief Retrospect of the Presbyterian Church in
North Carolina Prior to 1812.

In order to get a clear conception of the development
of the Presbyterian Church in North CaroHna, it seems
necessary to take into consideration some of the facts
and conditions of the church from an early period in
her history down to the time of the fonnation of the
Synod of North Carolina, Consequently the first chap-
ter of this book is devoted chiefly to a brief statement of
some of these facts and conditions, touching ihe progress
of the church, and also the dates showing the time of the
formation of her courts.

The Presbytery of Hanover was formed by the Synod
of New York in the year 1755, and its territory embraced
indefinitely the whole southern country, and, of couise,
included North Carolina. The first Presbyterian church
court (higher than a church session) ever held in North
Carolina, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was
that of Hanover Presbytery, which convened at " Lower
Hico" Church, in Person county, afterwards called ''Bar-
netts," on October 2, 1765. This meeting was held for
the purpose of ordaining and installing the Rev. James

lo The Presbyterian Church

Cressvvell as pastor of this church, together with Grassy
Creek and Nutbush churches, in Granville county. At
this meeting, also, the Rev. Henry Pattillo was called to
the Churches of Hawfields and Little River, in Orange
county.

The second meeting of Hanover Presbytery held in
North Carolina was at " Middle Hico," nov/ known as
"Red House Church," in Caswell county, on June 4, 1766.

The third meeting of this Presbytery held in North
Carolina was at Buffalo Church, in Guilford county,
then Rowan county, on March 2, 1768. At this meeting
the Rev. Dr. David Caldwell was installed pastor, though
he had been serving this church for several years ; the
Rev. Joseph Alexander was ordained '*sine-titulo," and
the Rev. Hugh McAden was called from Duplin county
to the churches on the ''Hico." Mr. McAden had been
a resident minister in Duplin county since 1757, and Mr.
Alexander was the successor of the Rev. Alexander
Craighead, who was called to Rocky River in 1758, and
who died at Sugar Creek Church, in Mecklenburg
county, in 1766. There is no record, so far as I know,
of the installation by Hanover Presbytery of Mr.
McAden at "Goshen" Church, in Duplin county, or of
Mr. Craighead at Rocky River Church, in Cabarrus
county. But in those days the synod often acted in a
Presbyterial capacity when it was necessary; for we find
that in 1765 a call from the "Catry's Settlement," in
North Carolina (Thyatira Church) was presented to the
Synod of New York and Philadelphia for the Rev. Elihu
Spencer, and placed in his hands ; and at the same time
a call was presented from the Hopewell and Centre
churches for the Rev. Mr. McWhorter, which was not
placed in his hands. It would seem from this that Han-
over Presbytery was not regarded by these congrega-

In North Carolina. ii

tions, and it is possible that Messrs. McAden and Craig-
head were installed by a commission from the synod.

The fourth and last meeting of Hanover Presbytery
held in North Carolina was at Buffalo Church, in Guil-
ford county, March 7, 1770. At this meeting an over-
ture to the Synod of New York and Philadelphia was
adopted for the erection of Orange Presbytery, and in
May following the overture was granted, and on the 5th
day of September, 1770, at the Hawfields Church, in
Orange county, the Presbytery of Orange was organized.

Prior to 1765 very few regular Presbyterian ministers
had resided or were then living in North Carolina. These
were the Rev. Messrs. Hugh McAden, James Campbell,
Alexander Craighead, James Cresswell, Henry Pattillo,
David Caldwell, and James Tate, who was never con-
nected with Orange Presbytery, but lived in Wilmington :
It is also possible that the Rev. William Tennent lived
in Granville county for a short time about 1743, and that
the Rev. Samuel Black lived in Duplin or New Hanover
county a short time about 1744. There were a number
of missionaries sent through the State before this time,
and the first missionary, and indeed the first Presbyterian
minister^ known to have preached in North Carolina was
the Rev. William Robinson, about 1742.

Of the above named ministers, McAden, Cresswell,
Pattillo and Caldwell, together with Joseph x\lexander,
Hezekiah Balch and Hezekiah James Balch, composed
the original Presbytery of Orange in 1770.

In 1765 many boundaries were fixed, and many
churches throughout the State were organized and re-
organized by the Rev. Messrs. Spencer and McWhorter,
who were commissioned by the synod to do this work,
and in 1770 there were about forty or fifty churches in
the State, with a membership of about 2,000.

12 The Presbyterian Church

The territory of Orange Presbytery at this time ex-
tended indefinitely to the south and west from the Vir-
ginia boundary, but practically only the State of North
Carolina east of the Blue Ridge, and the upper part of
South Carolina, were occupied by its ministers.

It is a matter of deep, though vain, regret that the
records of Orange Presbytery, embracing the first
twenty-five years of its history (1770-1795, and also from
1 8 12 to 1827) are lost beyond recovery. They were
burned with the residence of Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon,
near Hillsboro, N. C, on January i, 1827.

From 1770 to 1784 embraced the period in which oc-
curred the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Inde-
pendence at Charlotte and at Philadelphia, and American
freedom, with all the stirring scenes, events and hardships
incident thereto ; and yet during that period the Presbyte-
rian Church seems to have strengthened and grown more
rapidly than for a number of years afterwards. Fourteen
ministers were added to the roll, and quite a number of
churches were organized during that period. The names
of the ministers were: John Harris, James Campbell
(who belonged to the old South Carolina Presbytery),
James Edmonds, Thomas Reece, John Simpson, Alex.
McMillan, Samuel E. McCorkle, Thomas H. McCaul,
John Debow, Thomas Hill, Andrew Patton, James Hall,
Robert Archibald and John Cossan. The Rev. Dr.
McCorkle became a member of the Presbytery in 1777,
and the Rev. Dr. Hall in 1778, and these two men were
the peers in the western section of the Presbytery ; of
Henry Pattillo and David Caldwell in the middle or
eastern section, and all four of them were profound
scholars, able statesmen and staunch patriots, and they
wielded a tremendous influence in their day for civil
liberty and Presbyterianism in North Carolina. The

In North Carolina. 13

names of these four men, together with Craighead,
McAden, Campbell, Alexander and H. J. Balch, and
others mentioned above, will never be forgotten in con-
nection with the great struggle for American Independ-
ence and the advancement of the Presbyterian Church.

In 1784 there was a general adjustment of the bound-
aries of the Presbyteries throughout the United States,
and during that year the Presbytery of South Carolina
was set off from Orange by the Synod of New York and
Philadelphia. The first meeting was held at Waxhaws
in April, 1785, with the following members : Rev. Messrs.
Alexander, Edmonds, Reece, Harris, Simpson and Fran-
cis Cummins. The State line between North and South
Carolina now became, to a considerable extent, the south-
ern boundary of Orange Presbytery.

In 1788 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia was
dissolved, and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America was formed, and
as a part of the formation the Synod of the Carolinas was
erected.

The Synod of the Carolinas existed until 181 3, and
was composed of the Presbyteries of Orange, South
Carolina, and Abingdon, the territory of the latter being
chiefly in Tennessee. The first meeting of the synod was
held at Centre Church, in Rowan county. North Carolina,
on November 5, 1788. The Rev. David Caldwell preached
the opening sermon, and was Moderator of the meeting.
Only ten ministers and eight ruling elders were present,
though the roll of the three Presbyteries at this time
showed the names of twenty-eight ministers.

During the existence of this synod considerable efforts
were made to extend the Gospel into the destitute regions
of the State, and even beyond the State into Tennessee and
Mississippi. The great cause of domestic missions was

14 The Presbyterian Church

freely discussed in what was then called " The Free Con-
versation," and various members of the Synod were
appointed from time to time as missionaries, and these
brethren would often spend weeks, and sometimes as long
as six months, in their journeys travelling over the coun-
try and preaching the Gospel wherever they could com-
mand an audience. The Rev. James Hall, D. D., did a
great deal of this kind of work in his day, and his reports
to the synod, which, with others, are still on record, are
elaborate and intensely interesting.

In 1795 the Presbytery of Concord was set off from
Orange by the Synod of the Carolinas, with the follow-
ing twelve ministers: Rev. Messrs. Samuel McCorkle,
James Hall, James McRee, David Barr, Samuel C. Cald-
well, James WalHs, J. D. Kilpatrick, L. F. Wilson, John
Carrigan, Humphrey Hunter, J. M. Wilson and Alexan-
der Caldw-ell. The Yadkin river was made the line of
division, cutting the State into two parts. Concord em-
bracing the territory west and Orange east of this line.
The first meeting of Concord Presbytery was held at
Bethphage Church December 24, 1795.

In 1799 the first recorded statistics are given, and
these show that the two Presbyteries of Orange and Con-
cord had a membership at that time of twenty-nine min-
isters and fifty-five churches, but the number of com-
municants is not given.

In 1800, and for several years afterwards, the church
witnessed and enjoyed one of the most remarkable and
wonderful revivals of religion that this country has per-
haps ever seen. It began in 1800, and lasted for several
years, and it was remarkable in its extent, covering sev-
eral States, and in the strange affections of mind and
body which possessed the people without warning, and
regardless of time or place. It seems to have had its

In North Carolina. 15

origin under the preaching of the Rev. James McGready,
who was indeed a very remarkable man, and whose first
charge was at the Haw River, Speedwell and Stony
Creek churches in Orange Presbytery in the years
i793-'5- He removed to Kentucky, where the great
revival began, and it gradually spread over a great por-
tion of the whole southern country, and especially in
North Carolina in the year 1802. Great numbers pro-
fessed conversion and united with the church, and a
lasting work for the Master seems to have been accom-
plished.

A particular account of the life and character of Mr.
McGready and of this strange and wonderful work of
grace may be seen in Dr. Foote's ''Sketches of North
Carolina."

In 1812, among the last acts enacted by the Synod of
the Carolinas was to set off from Orange the Presby-
tery of Fayetteville, with the following eight members:
Rev. Messrs. Samuel Stanford, William L. Turner, Mal-
colm McNair, Murdock McMillan, John Mclntyre, Wil-
liam B. Meroney, Allen McDougald and William Pea-
cock.

This Presbytery did not meet and organize at the time
appointed, but held its first meeting at Centre Church, in
Robeson county, October 21, 1813.

The Synod of the Carolinas then adopted, as its closing
act, an overture to the General Assembly for the division
of itself into two synods, to be known as the " Synod of
North Carolina," comprising the Presbyteries of Orange,
Concord and Fayetteville; and the ''Synod of South
Carolina and Georgia," comprising the Presbyteries of
South Carolina, Hopewell and Harmony, and that the
Synod of the Carolinas be dissolved.

The Synod of the Carolinas then adjourned sine die at
New Providence Church, October 5, 1812.

i6 The Presbyterian Church

During the existence of thi» synod a very great deal
was accomplished along many lines, looking to the ad-
vancement of Christ's kingdom and the development of
the Presbyterian Church. New Presbyteries were formed,
boundaries were fixed, and a vast amount of missionary
work was done. We must remember — and we too often
forget — that in those days the educational, religious and
missionary advantages were not what they are now, and
that the chief mode of travel was on horseback, and that
many of the ministers, pastors as well as missionaries,
spent a large portion of their time in the saddle. The
territory was almost unlimited, and many of the congre-
gations were scattered and far apart, and, besides the
daily travel and constant hardships, the occasional trips
to the synod or to the General Assembly, the latter usually
meeting in Philadelphia, were long and v^earisome jour-
neys. There were many difficulties to be met and obsta-
cles to be overcome ; there were no settled plans for syste-
matic giving, for the extension and support of the
Gospel, and the compensation of ministers was exceed-
ingly small, but these men faithfully did their work and
preached the Gospel in all its simplicity and purity, and
left the results with God.

In those days the church was very jealous of the doc-
trines held and preached by her ministers, and of the
pure life and character required of them. Consequently
there were many cases of investigation and discipline in
the synod and in the Presbyteries. Some of these cases
w^ere of long duration, and occupied much of the time of
the church courts. Such were the cases of the complaint
of the Rev. Hezekiah Balch against the Abingdon Pres-
bytery, and the counter complaints of the Presbyterv
against him, and of the Rev. Colin Lindsay in Orange
Presbvterv.

In North Carolina. 17

The history of Mr. Lindsay in the church courts is a
very remarkable one, and he had a very remarkable
career. He was born in Scotland, and it is said of him,
that he was a very scholarly man, of fine personal appear-
ance, a good preacher, and that he commanded a great
influence over his friends and adherents. He came from
Scotland to North Carolina and united with Orange Pres-
bytery in the year 1792, and from this time until 1803,
when his ministerial career came to a close, he was
almost continuously before the church courts, having
been often admonished, several times suspended, and
finally deposed from the ministry. During this period he
served, at different times, the churches of Black River,
Brown Marsh, Lumberton, Raft's Swamp, Shoe Heel
(which is now Maxton), Gum Swamp and Bethel.

A most wonderful story has been told in connection
with this man's birth, and while there have been many
variations of the story and of its explanation, yet the
main facts have been abundantly corroborated, and many
of the people of Robeson county accept it as absolutely
true. The story, in short, is this: The Rev. Colin Lind-
say was born after his mother had died and had been
buried ! The explanation is as follows :

Mrs. Lindsay was a lady of culture, refinement and
considerable wealth, and in the natural course of events
she was taken sick, and to all appearances she died. The
family believing her to be dead, the necessary prepara-
tions for burial were made, and in preparing the body for
the tomb it was customary in Scotland to leave upon the
person the individual jewelry, just as they had worn it
while living, and, thus prepared, the body of Mrs. Lind-
say was laid in the tomb and buried. On the night fol-
lowing the burial a band of robbers, desirous of obtaining
the jewelry, repaired to the grave and opened it. They

i8 The Presbyterian Church

removed the lid from the coffin and proceeded to remove
a ring from a finger, and in doing this it was necessary
to cut the finger, which drew blood, and immediately the
dormant circulation in the body was restored and. signs
of life were apparent. The robbers fled from the scene
in terror, and in their flight they were observed by some
persons passing by who immediately repaired to the
grave and found Mrs. Lindsay struggling and crying for
help! They quickly removed her from the open grave
and tenderly bore her to her home, which was hardby,
and delivered her to her amazed and dumbfounded
family! In a short time, it is said that Mrs. Lindsay
recovered from the shock, and soon after this occurrence
the Rev. Colin Lindsay was born !

In those days the church by no means neglected the
great cause of education. The doctrine was held by our
fathers that wherever a Presbyterian settlement existed
and a pastor was located, there next to the church should
be a school, and there were quite a number of excellent
schools scattered throughout the State. The oldest of
them was perhaps "Queen's Museum," afterwards called
"Liberty Hall," in Charlotte, the charter of which was
twice annulled by the King, and in which many stirring
debates were held touching the great questions of the
times, and doubtless among them the immortal Declara-
tion of Independence. There was also the old "Grove
Academy," in Duplin county, by the side of "Goshen"
Church, which was perhaps the oldest Presbyterian
church in the State. Here the Rev. Hugh McAden, the
Rev. James Tate, and perhaps others preached and taught
in the olden times. Then there were the famous schools
of Caldwell in Guilford, of McCorkle in Rowan, of Hall
in Iredell, of Wilson in Cabarrus, and others which were
not a whit inferior in many respects to many seats of

In North Carolina. 19

learning much more pretentious in the present time.
These classic schools educated many eminent men, and
sent forth in their day many scholars of a high order.
The University of North Carolina was founded in 1793
under Presbyterian influences, and the majority of its
principal teachers in early times were Presbyterians. It
was demanded by our forefathers that all Presbyterian
children should at least be taught to read, and we are
told "not to be able to repeat the Shorter Catechism was
a mark of vulgarity among the people who claimed a
natural equality." It has also been said that "from the
great efforts made by Presbyterian pastors and mission-
aries in establishing and promoting education among the
people at large, and from the deep conviction of the im-
portance of some degree of education impressed upon the
hearts of Presbyterian families, it came to be a fact that
in the bounds of the original Presbyterian settlements in
North Carolina, very few persons grew up unable to
read intelligibly.'' It is doubtful if the succeeding gene-
rations down to the present time, can produce the same
evidences of careful teaching and training on the subjects
of religion and education, notwithstanding the vastly
increased facilities and advantages, that were apparent in
Presbyterian Homes before and during the existence of
the Synod of the Carolinas.

CHAPTER 11.

The Synod of North Carolina from the Time of Its
Formation Until the Civil War.

The first meeting of the Synod of North Carolina was
held at Alamance Church, in Guilford county, on Thurs-
day, Ocotber 7, 18 13. The following twelve ministers
and three ruling elders were present : Rev. Messrs. David
Caldwell, Robert H. Chapman, James W. Thompson,
William Paisley, Samuel Paisley, Robert Tate, Mur-
dock McMillan, John Mclntyre, James Hall, Samuel C.
Caldwell, John M. Wilson, John Robinson, and Elders
Hugh Forbes, John McDonald and William Carrigan.

The Rev. Dr. James Hall preached the opening sermon
on the text : " Go ye into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every creature." The Rev. Dr. Robert H.
Chapman was elected Moderator, and also elected the
stated clerk of the synod.

The synod was now fully organized, composed of the
three Presbyteries of Orange, Concord and Fayetteville,
and its territory embraced all of North Carolina and
small portions of South Carolina and Virginia.

The Presbytery of Concord was now the largest in
membership, while the Presbytery of Orange was the
largest in territory, stretching from the Yadkin river to
the Atlantic Ocean. The three Presbyteries in whole
consisted at this time of 31 ministers, 85 churches and
about 4.000 communicants.

For a long time after the organization of the synod
the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina seems to have

In North Carolina. 21

been, in a large measure, "at ease in Zion," and yet some
noble advances were made. From 18 12 to 1861 embraced
a period of national peace and great material prosperity,
and the institution of slavery was at its flood-tide. The
institution of slavery was not near so profitable in North
Carolina as it was in some other States, and the mere fact
that a man owned slaves by no means rendered it unne-
cessary for him to labor with his own hands, for indeed
the master, in many respects, was often a harder toiler
than any of his slaves; and yet slavery of itself was
doubtless the occasion of much indolence among the
people, and tended to foster a spirit of indifference to
personal energy, and to high mental and moral attain-
ments among the masses of the people. It is true that the
church grew in those days, but it was more from the
force of circumstances than from the energetic and syste-
matic use of the abundant means at hand. There were
many gracious revivals of religion throughout the coun-
try, and a great deal of attention was given in Christian
homes to the religious training of the negroes, but there
seems not to have been any general religious awakening
from the time of the great revival in i8oo-'3, until twenty
or thirty years afterwards. New Presbyteries were
formed, only soon afterwards to be dissolved.

In 1824 the synod set off from Concord the Presbytery
of Bethel, lying chiefly in York and Chester counties,
South Carolina ; and at the same time the Presbytery of
Mecklenburg was first formed, which was also dissolved
in 1827. The Presbyteries of Roanoke and Morganton
were formed in 1835, embracing practically the same ter-
ritory now occupied by Albemarle and Asheville pres-
byteries, and they were dissolved in 1840.

Many noble opportunities for the expansion, develop-
ment and growth of the Presbyterian Church were neg-

22 The PRRsr.YTERTAX Church

lected and lost, and other denominations came in and
possessed much cf the land which naturally and rightfully
belonged to the Presbyterians.

In the early years of the synod, at the annual meetings,
much of the time was consumed in discussing questions
of law and order, and matters pertaining to the general
interest of the church at large, rather than to the press-
ing interests of the church at home, and in looking to
evangelization of the vast unoccupied territory. The
southern professorship at Princeton College was an
object and a theme much discussed, and large sums of
money were raised in the synod for its endowment and
support, but there was no systematic plan of giving or
of collecting money for the benevolent causes of the
church, and scarcely any thing was done for home and
foreign missions.

In 1823 the following resolution was adopted:

" Whereas the cultivation of missionary fields does
afford a most important aid to the cause of missions, and,
whereas, such fields might be conveniently cultivated
within our bounds, either by individuals or congregations
collectively : therefore

''Resolved, That the members of this synod use special
efifoTts with the churches under their care, to promote
this laudable object."

The cause of "Domestic Missions" was freely dis-
cussed in the " Free Conversation," after the plan adopted
by the Synod of the Carolinas, and a synopsis of which
was published and placed on record, and various mem-
bers of the synod were appointed as temporary supplies
and. to do missionary work. About this time and long
afterwards, aside from the faithful preaching of the
Word — and the Word was faithfully preached by a noble
set of men — there were no settled plans for overtaking

In North Carolina. 23

the vast destitutions in the synod. Each Presbytery was
expected to do the best it could in looking after its own
unoccupied territory, it now being held more and more
by many of the brethren that the synod as a body could
do nothing, beyond a strict interpretation of the law of
"review and control." The annual meetings of the synod
were greatly enjoyed socially by those who could attend,
but the attendance was usually small, and in 1823 an
annual collection was ordered to defray the expenses of
the representatives, and a very strong resolution was
adopted enjoining attendance. The business of the synod,
aside from the discussion of questions of general interest
to the church and matters pertaining to the welfare of
societies and institutions of learning, was largely routine.

In 1825 the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
began to be discussed, and the synod entered heartily into
co-operation with the Virginia brethren for the formation
and welfare of this school of the prophets, and it has
nobly stood by the Seminary until this day.

In 1835 Davidson College began to engage the earnest
attention of the synod, and it has never ceased to be an
object and a theme of deep and increasing interest, and
to-day the interest still abides, and the college stands as
a monument to the everlasting honor, praise and wisdom
of our fathers, and is the pride and joy of all Presby-
terians.

In those days these institutions of learning especially
consumed much of the time and attention of the synod,
while the extension and development of the church, espe-
cially in the destitute regions of the State, did not receive
that attention, and were not urged to that extent that
might have been supposed. But the foundations of great
things in the future were being laid, and the building of
these foundations were in safe hands, building slowly but
surely.

24 The Presbyterian Church

In 1832 a very careful though not complete record of
statistics is given, and this record shows 64 ministers, 127
churches, 832 baptisms, 29 Sunday-schools, with more
than 1,000 scholars, and the number of communicants
was perhaps about 8,000. This shows a gain of 33 min-
isters, 42 churches, and the membership about doubled
in about twenty years. The reports for this year of 1832
were very encouraging, great revivals of religion were
enjoyed, especially in Concord and Orange Pres-
byteries. It is said that 163 persons were added to
Rocky River Church, 126 to Poplar Tent and Ramah,
and 130 to Charlotte and Sugar Creek churches. It
was estimated that there w^ere 2,000 conversions within
the bounds of the synod, and that 600 of them were in
the counties of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus. But the
whole amount of contributions, raised in the synod and
reported this year for the combined missionary, benevo-
lent, temperance, Bible and tract societies was only
$1,734, and of this amount %'J2y was contributed by a
single church, the Milton Church, in Orange Presbytery.

In 1840 there were 78 ministers and 137 churches in
the synod, showing a steady gain in membership, if not a
commensurate gain in contributions.

About this time the synod was composed of a very able
body of men, many of whom were excellent teachers and
profound scholars, as well as able preachers of the
Gospel. The roll at this time shows the names of the
Rev. Drs. Caldwell, Caruthers, Graham, Harding, Lacy,
McRee, McPheeters, Mitchell, Morrison, Phillips, Penick,
Robinson, Smith and Wilson: and the Williamsons, the
Pharrs, the Paisleys, the Mclvers, McQueen, McNair,
McLean, Mclntyre, Stanford, Tate, Gretter, and a num-
ber of others, besides many noble and influential elders
who usually attended the church courts.

In North Carolina. 25

The great influence and abundant labors of these men
in their day, their efforts in founding and fostering some
of the institutions of learning which we now enjoy, and
in laying deep and broad foundations for future genera-
tions, as well as their fidelity in preaching a pure Gospel,
deserve all honor and praise.

In 1850 there were 90 ministers and 150 churches,
showing a gain of 12 ministers and 13 churches in ten
years, and during the next ten years, from 1850 to i860,
there seems to have been a general awakening along all
lines.

In 1852 a special committee, of which the Rev. S. A.
Stanfield was chairman, presented the following resolu-
tion, which was adopted :

" Resolved, That this synod will appoint one agent on
each of the Boards of Foreign Missions, Domestic Mis-
sions and Education, and that these agents be required to
take into consideration the whole field committed to their
supervision, and present at each meeting of synod a
written report of all that is doing within the boundaries
of the synod on the subjects generally assigned to them;
and that the consideration of these reports shall be a
special order at each meeting of the synod."

This was a most important and far-reaching resolution,
and proved to be the beginning of a new order of things.
The benevolent causes of the church until now were man-
aged and controlled by the boards of the General Assem-
bly, which received and disbursed the greater part of
the contributions made by the churches. The synod had
grown weary of being lectured by foreigners on these
subjects, and the question now arose. Why not employ
our own agents and do this work ourselves? And from
this time ever afterwards a new spirit was apparent in

26 The PRKsnvTERiAN Church

the synoil, and there was a marked increase of interest
and contributions for all the benevolent causes.

In the report on Foreign Missions for the year 1859
we find the following remarkable statement: "Previous
to the year 1852 there was no fixed and well organized
plan of sustaining missions in this synod. No perma-
nent agents were appointed, as we have them now, to
advance the claims of the boards in our churches. The
consequence was, that our attention was seldom directed
to these vital questions, and our energies lay compara-
tively dormant. Before this, no order of the day was
ever made on our docket for an hour to be devoted to
the consideration of missions. Often did our synod meet
and adjourn without speaking a single word or hearing a
single report for the furtherance of any one of the boards,
only as it came from some agent from abroad. Far be it
from your agent to intimate that these subjects were not
dear to the ministers and elders that attended; they
thought and prayed over them doubtless, but a mere
glance at the minutes wall show that up to 1852 there
was no regular organization in this body for the perma-
nent furtherance of the boards."

The author of the above report was the Rev. Archibald
Baker, who further shows, as a result of the resolution
adopted in 1852, that the contributions for Foreign Mis-
sions had increased more than $3,000, and for Domestic
Missions the amount contributed in 1855 ^^'^s $1,714, and
in 1859 t^"*^ amount collected and expended was $6,424.

Another result attributed to the adoption of the reso-
lution of 1852 as a decided step in the progress of the
church was the establishment as the synod's organ in
1857 of the " North Carolina Presbyterian."

This paper was first published in Fayetteville, N. C,
the first number being issued in January, 1858. The min-

Ix XoRTH Carolina. 27

utes of synod contain frequent resolutions of endorse-
ment and commendation of the paper during all these
years of its history. It has been an agency well nigh
indispensable for the building up of the interests of the
synod, and forwarding the institutions under its care.
The first editor of the paper was the Rev. George
McNeill, a brilliant and talented man, who died in 1861.
The Rev. Willis Miller was associate editor with Mr.
McNeill, and had charge of the paper for a time after
his death. They were succeeded by the Rev. James
McNeill as editor and the Rev. John M. Sherwood as
associate editor. The Rev. James McNeill was a brother
of George McNeill, and was the colonel of the Fifth
North Carolina Regiment of Cavalry, and was killed
while leading his regiment in a charge near Petersburg,
Va., on March 31, 1865. The Rev. Mr. Sherwood then
became the sole editor and owner of the paper until his
death, in 1872. The paper was sold, and for a short time
the Rev. Dr. H. G. Hill was editor as well as part owner.
The paper was then transferred to Wilmington, N. C,
and the Rev. T. L. De Veaux became editor, which posi-
tion he held until his death, in 1876. He was succeeded
for a short time by the Rev. Dr. Joseph R. Wilson as
editor, and ^Ir. John ^IcLaurin as business manager.
For a short time the Rev. J. ]\I. Rawlings was editor, in
connection with Mr. McLaurin. The paper then became
the property of Mr. John McLaurin, and he was the sole
editor until 1898. He kept the paper for the synod and
made it a strong arm of the church, and the synod will
never cease to owe to him a debt of gratitude for his
long and faithful service.

In 1898 he sold the paper to a joint stock company, and
the Rev. A. J. McKelway, D. D., became the editor. The
paper was removed to Charlotte, N. C, and launched

28 The Presbyterian Church

upon a wider mission as a paper for the whole church,
and the name was changed to " The Presbyterian
Standard." Dr. McKelway was a ready, vigorous and
forcible writer, and few^ men ever w'ielded a pen with
more clearness and power. He retired as editor in 1905,
and for a year the Rev. Messrs. T. J. Allison and W. T.
Waller had charge of the paper as associate editors, and
they were succeeded by the Rev. Dr. P. R. Law and Rev.
Dr. R. C. Reed, as editor and associate editor, who have
charge of the paper at the present time. May it ever live
and prosper, as it has lived and prospered in the past, as
a mighty power for the extension of Christ's kingdom
and -the evangelization of the State.

In i860 the synod met at Statesville, N. C. The Rev.
R. H. Lafiferty was Moderator, and 61 ministers and 50
ruling elders were present. The synod at that time was
composed of 3 Presbyteries, 92 ministers, 184 churches
and a membership of about 15,600.

When this meeting of the synod adjourned at States-
ville, N. C. October 27, i860, the members of that body,
perhaps, did not even dream, much less think, that the
last meeting of the Synod of North Carolina, under the
old system and in connection with the old assembly, had
been held ; that the last hymn ^had been sung and the last
prayer offered, and that a national crisis was at hand,
and that before they should meet again the whole country
would be in the throes of an unprecedented civil war!
The dreadful war between the States (1861-1865), like
a storm-cloud had been gathering for a number of years,
and at length it suddenly burst upon the country in all
its pitiless fury, and deluged the whole land with blood,
and subjected the Church and the State to the most dis-
tressing circumstances, heartrending scenes and bitter
memories.

In North Carolina. 29

It is not within the scope of this book to dwell upon
that period, or to attempt a description of the deprivations
and sufferings of the people, at home or in the army,
during those dark and troublesome times. It is left to
the faithful historian of the State and of the nation to
tell the fearful story; and yet we must inquire into the
welfare, progress and development of the church during
and after those dreadful vears.

CHAPTER III.

The Synod of North Carolina During the Civil
War and the Reconstruction Period.

On November i, 1861, the Synod of North CaroHna
being convened in Raleigh, the following preamble and
resolutions on the state of the country were adopted :

" Whereas the country is involved in a bloody interne-
cine war, the desolations of which threaten our citizens,
and the sacrifices of which have affected the church of
our beloved State; and

" Whereas by the tyranny and usurpation of the gov-
ernment at Washington, the safeguards of the Constitu-
tion have been broken down, threatening all that is dear
in civil liberty and all that is precious in the inheritance
received from our fathers ; and

" Whereas the several Presbyteries composing this
synod have in view of these deeds, as well as in view of
the extraordinary endorsement of them by the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United
States, requiring us and our churches to approve and to
pray for the success of measures so tyrannical and iniqui-
tous, have formally and solemnly dissolved all connection
with said General Assembly, declaring, however, their
steadfast adherence in all respects to the Confession of
Faith, Catechisms, Form of Government, Book of Disci-
pline and Directory of Worship of the Presbyterian
Church, and have severally appointed delegates to meet
at Atlanta, Ga., and, with other commissioners from the
several Presbyteries of the South, then and there to con-

In North Carolina. 31

stitute and form a General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church for the Confederate States of America : therefore,
in the fear of God and under a solemn sense of duty, be it
"Resolved, by the Synod of North Carolina, i. That
the synod intelligently, cordially, solemnly approves the
action of its several Presbyteries in the premises.

2. That the synod, set and appointed by her Divine
Head as a witness for the right and for truth, deeply,
truly sympathizes with the State and with the Confede-
rate States in their present righteous struggle, and cor-
dially approves their action in asserting and maintaining
their sovereignty and severing the ties that bound us and
them to the late United States of America.

3. That the synod regards the present war on our part
as a war of defense, commending itself to our people's
efforts, prayers and hearts, as a hallowed though stern
contest for sacred rights, involving homes and altars,
liberty and religion, and to it we solemnly, prayerfully
commit our persons and efforts and energies and prop-
erty, our sons and lives.

4. That the synod recognizes, and here with gratitude
records the tokens of Divine favor extended to our strug-
gling, bleeding country, leading our hosts in the day of
battle, shielding them under fearful peril, and giving
them brilliant victories, for all of which we desire to
present fervent and unceasing thanksgivings. •

" 5. That the synod would embrace this momentous
crisis in our country's history, to urge pastors, elders,
private Christians and our whole people to the offering of
unceasing prayers in behalf of the Confederate States, in
their present noble struggle in defense of constitutional
liberty, beseeching our Covenant God and Father to
lead our armies, to drive back our enemies, and early to

32 The Presbyterian Church

enable us in His fear and love to achieve a new nation's
greatness."

The foregoing paper is here recorded in full purely as
a matter of history, and to show the mind of the church
in view of the great struggle.

On December 4, 1861, at Augusta, Ga., the Southern
General Assembly was formed, and the immortal address
by Thornwell and the sermon by Palmer on that occasion
have gone into history, and fully explain the causes from
a Presbyterian standpoint of the great disruption and
struggle. Thousands gave their lives for principles and
for a cause which they sincerely deemed to be just and
righteous, and time alone will prove the true character of
those principles, and whether or not the thousands gave
their lives in vain. In the providence of God the terrible
war gave ample proof that the best soldiers, as a rule,
are Calvinists, and true to their principles and deep con-
victions, the ministers, their sons and the sons of their
charges, nobly bore their full share of the awful burdens
of the times, and they have left to their descendants a
history of untarnished honor in war and in defeat, and
full of almost unparalleled examples of deprivation, suf-
fering, hardship, heroism and bravery, of which they
well may be proud.

In 1862 the resolution calling for the appointment of
agents on benevolence and adopted in 1852 was amended,
and the Rev. Messrs. J. Rumple, J. M. Sherwood, Neill
McKay and C. K. Caldwell were appointed agents o'i
Foreign Missions, Domestic Missions, Education and
Publication, respectively; but the contributions to these
causes were small and wholly inadequate to meet the
urgent demands. It was said in the address to the
churches that "the public mind was powerfully agitated

In North Carolina. 33

and in general preoccupied with public intereits, to the
partial or total exclusion of their religious concerns."
And yet, "an unwonted spirit of prayer connected with a
profound and growing sense of dependence on the favor
of Divine Providence" was believed to prevail among the
people, and was apparent in the prayer meetings and
church services, which were well attended. The awful
realities of war were now pressing hard upon the people,
and the interests of the army chiefly engaged the atten-
tion of the church as well as the State.

At this meeting of synod the Rev. Neill McKay offered
a resolution that each Presbytery appoint three men to
collect and disburse funds for the education of the chil-
dren of deceased soldiers, and this was done to a consid-
erable extent until the close of the war. The synod in
those days did nobly in its heroic efforts amidst confu-
sion and conflicting duties, to meet the demands of the
times. The waste places at home, and especially the
army, were crying for help and greatly needed the min-
istrations of the Gospel, and many of the ministers
entered the army as chaplains, while the synod bade them
God-speed, and at the same time did everything possible
in every department of Christian work.

At this time Orange Presbytery had in its employment
one evangelist and six missionaries; Concord had one
evangelist and five missionaries, and Fayetteville had five
missionaries, and these brethren did a noble work, but
they could not begin to supply the vacant churches and
destitute fields.

In 1863 the Rev. John M. Sherwood, in his report, said,
" We cannot hope to supply our feeble churches and mis-
sionary fields with the preached Word, as we would
gladly do, while the war continues. We rejoice to know
that something has been done. The work has not been

34 The Presbyterian Church

overlooked by the Presbyteries. In all of them efforts
have been made to i^upply, as far as possible, the most
pressing wants of our people. The wants of the army
have been considered, and much has been done to supply
our soldiers with the preached Word. There are at
present eight members of this synod engaged in the
regular work of the chaplaincy, viz. : The Rev. Messrs,
Drury Lacy, E. H. Harding, H. B. Pratt, R. B. Ander-
son, J. W. F. Freeman, Colin Shaw, David Fairley, J. H.
Colton, and until recently, J. M. Sprunt, who has been in
the work from the commencement of the war."

In addition to the regular work of these brethren, all
of the Presbyteries enjoined it upon their members to
give a portion of their time to the army, and many of
them cheerfully responded to the call. Among the last
acts of the synod of 1863 was to proclaim and recom-
mend a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to be ob-
served in earnest prayer to God on behalf of the afflicted
country.

In 1864 the synod met in Greensboro, and very little
was done except the ordinary routine business. The most
important acts, however, of this meeting were the formu-
lation and adoption of an address to the churches and a
paper on the state of the country. In the latter some of
the terrible results of the war are enumerated, "calling
loudly for humiliation and prayer," and some of the
tokens of the Divine favor are gratefully noted and
acknowledged," calling for devout gratitude and thank-
fulness," and while still believing in the justice of the
cause and the injustice of the oppression, the synod again
proclaimed "that as humiliation and confession may well
be accompanied with thanksgiving and praise," that
another day of humiliation and prayer be observed, as
well as thanksgiving and praise, in view of the past his-

In North Carolina. 35

tory and present prospects alike of the country and of
the church. The day appointed, November i6, 1864, was
observed, and the people humbly and devoutly prayed to
God that the cruel war might cease, and that the banner
of peace might once more wave over the land. And
before the next meeting of the synod the prayers of the
people were answered, and the awful conflict, covering a
period of four years, was ended, and had passed into
history.

During these four years of war the Presbyterian
Church in North Carolina gained only eight ministers
and five churches, and lost more than 2,000 communi-
cants! Of course the loss consisted largely of young
men, in the prime of life, who were the hope of the church
and who had fallen in battle, or who had died in prison
or from disease and exposure on the field.

After the war was over the synod met in FayetteviUe
October 25, 1865, and intense anxiety, not to say deep
disappointment and discouragement, was written upon
every face and expressed in every tone. Indeed, the war
was over, for which all were thankful, but the hearts of
the people were sad ! Their property was gone, their
homes were desolate, their beloved and precious dead
were silent, and confusion, demoralization and lawless-
ness were seen in everything and reigned everywhere.
The institution of slavery was forever ended, and the
negroes were free; but this great population of ignorant
creatures had been freed and left by the victors in arms
to shift for themselves, and they were homeless, helpless
and dependent, and, to meet this new condition of things
grave and perplexing questions arose on every hand.
What could the synod do? What better could it have
done than to seek the help of the Lord? Therefore the
svnod resolved:

36 The Presbyterian Church

" Whereas, in times of rebuke and confusion, desola-
tion and fearfulness, it is the duty of the people of God
to draw near to their King and acknowledge the justice,
holiness and goodness of His providential dealings with
them, the synod hereby appoints a day of fasting, humilia-
tion and prayer, that life may flow with new vigor from
the great head of the church, to all the members thereof,
and that the rulers of the land may be guided to wise
counsels for its benefit."

In the Narrative on the State of Religion the synod
said, after deploring the increase of the evils of the times,
" We now need an unusual amount of grace, if we would
successfully resist the tide of iniquity which is rolling in
upon us like a flood."

The people had now entered upon that period which
is commonly called the " Reconstruction Period."

This period lasted about ten years — until about 1875 —
and for several years immediately after the war the peo-
ple, in many respects, suffered as much, if not more, from
misrule and corruption, than during the war. It is true
the suffering was of a different character, for the horror
of the war could scarcely be repeated or surpassed, but
these horrors cv^ere followed by a reign of terror which
tried men's souls. The people had to endure for a time
a military government, administered by aliens to the
Commonwealth, and by men who were not in sympathy
with those who suffered. They had to endure the in-
tense bitterness engendered by bad men and by political
factions, and they were made to feel the heavy iron heel
of arbitrary force, and to drink the bitter dregs of some
of the results of war. They were compelled to endure
the arrogance and insolence of many of the enfranchised
negroes, who had suddenly been raised, politically, as the
peers of their former masters. They were without money,

In North Carolina. 37

except Confederate money, which was worthless, and
they had to pay or promise to pay high prices for every-
thing, and to depend upon domestic help and farm labor
which was utterly unreliable and almost worthless. And,
besides all this, a spirit of demoralization, disorder and
lawlessness was abroad in the land, rendering social life
miserable and unsafe. The people of God, many of whom
were in deep poverty and sorrow, met these reverses of
fortune and endured these trials in a manner and spirit
manifesting the grace of patience as none but the people
of God could do, and which is worthy of the admiration
and praise of all people in all ages.

In 1866 the synod enjoined it upon Christian fathers
and mothers to look specially to their own children, and
to teach them the fear of God and obedience to lawful
authority; and in 1867 the address to the churches was
full of affectionate counsels and admonitions, calling the
people to prayer and to arise and rebuild the waste places,
and urging them to the support of evangelists and mis-
sionaries.

About this time there were only five home missionaries
regularly employed in the synod, and not more than
$1,000 was contributed for Domestic Missions, and the
aggregate membership of the church was about 15,000.
But, from this time on, the leaven of hope and activity
began to work, the contributions increased, and the great
need of evangelization soon became the chief theme of
discussion in all the Presbyteries.

In 1868 the Presbytery of Wilmington was set off from
Fayetteville, with the following ten members, viz. : Rev.
Messrs. H. A. Munroe, James Kelly, Colin Shaw, S. C.
Alexander, D. B. Black, H. L. Singleton, B. F. Marable,
J. M. Sprunt, L. McKinnon and S. H. Isler. The first
meeting was held in Wilmington, N. C, November 21,
1868, in the house of Mr. Patrick Murphy.

38 The 1*resbyterian Church

The Rev. S. C. Alexander says, in his httle book called
" Miracles and Events," that '' Wilmington Presbytery
was organized for the express purpose of evangelizing
Eastern North Carolina." He says there was consider-
able opposition to the movement, and that he "spent a
whole night in prayer" before the meeting of the Pres-
bytery, when these matters were discussed. He was the
first evangelist of Wilmington Presbytery, a strong
preacher, and a most ardent advocate for evangelistic
work. He did a noble work in Eastern North Carolina
at Black River, South River, Swansboro and Topsail
from 1859 to 1873, when he removed to Mecklenburg
Presbytery, and afterwards to the Synod of Arkansas.

In 1869 the Presbytery of Mecklenburg was set off
from Concord, with the following twenty-three members,
viz. : Rev. Messrs. R. H. Morrison, J. E. Morrison, J. D.
Hall, W. W. Pharr, John Douglass, Robert Burwell, A.
W. Miller, G. D. Parks, J. C. Williams, R. Z. Johnston,
William McDonald, R. B. Anderson, J. F. W. Freeman,
R. N. Davis, J. S. Barr, J. J. Kennedy, N. Shotwell, Robt.
H. Chapman, T. E. Davis, W. N. Morrison, H. H. Banks,
William Graves and Jacob Flood. The first meeting was
held in Morganton, N. C, October 16, 1869, in the parlor
of Mrs. Robert Pierson.

The formation of these two Presbyteries — one in the
east and the other in the west — tended greatly to encour-
age the synod and to further the interests of evangeliza-
tion in the State. This year more than 1,000 copies of
the Address to the Churches was printed in pamphlet
form and widely distributed, and in that address it was
said : " We ought to have in this synod at least eight or
ten evangelists to labor and carry the banner of the cross
outside of all our churches into the wide regions beyond,
in the eastern and western parts oi the State. This is

In North Carolina. 39

the great and crying want of the church in this synod
to-day." This shows the state of feeUng in the church in
1869, and from 1870 to 1875 the state of the country
gradually became more settled and peaceful, and the
church began to realize as never before the great need of
evangelization. The number of Home Missionaries and
evangelists rapidly increased in all the Presbyteries, as
veil as the contributions for their support, and a great
deal of aggressive and effective work was done during
these years. But the plan of overtaking the destitutions
and planting Presbyterianism where it had never been
known, was confined solely to the efforts of each individ-
ual Presbytery, in looking after its own territory, until
the great synodical movement was inaugurated.

CHAPTER IV.

The Origin of Synodical Home Missions in North
Carolina.

In October, 1875, ten years after the Civil War, the
Synod of North Carolina, representing five Presbyteries,
105 ministers 213 churches and 16,200 communicants,
met in Greensboro, N. C.

The active operations of the synod at that time, in all
its departments of work, were conducted solely through
agents, who were appointed upon the basis of the resolu-
tion adopted in 1852, and who had the oversight of all
the great causes of church work, and the most important
causes were Foreign Missions, Sustentation, Education,
Publication and Sabbath-Schools. The agent of Susten-
tation, however, was charged with the oversight not only
of Sustentation proper, but also of evangelistic work and
the Invalid Fund, which were classed under the one
general head of " Sustentation."

The Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D., was the synod's agent of
Sustentation in 1875, ^^d from his report that year it
appears that less than $8,000 was raised in the whole
synod, including all the salaries of all the evangelists,
for these three combined causes, and the amount reported
to the assembly as contributed by the churches was only
$2,264.

On the approval of Dr. Hill's report, the following
resolution was adopted. It is not stated in the record
who offered this resolution, but it is probable that it was
offered by Dr. Marable, Dr. Rumple or Dr. Hill, and it

In North Carolina. 41

was the first key-note to the future rise and progress of
synodical missions in North Carohna :

" Resolved, That the whole subject of the absolute and
relative aggressiveness of the Presbyterian Church in
North Carolina be referred to a committee, with the in-
struction to consider it, and if it be found that our whole
duty has not been performed, said committee shall indi-
cate the causes of said delinquencies and point out the
remedy."

The following committee was appointed : Rev. Messrs.
J. Rumple, B. F. Marable, R. Z. Johnston and Messrs. D.
H. Morrison and George Allen.

The next year (1876) the synod met in Fayetteville,
and the report of the Committee on Aggressiveness was
heard, and after much discussion and debate the matter
was recommitted to the same committee to further con-
sider the subject and report next year, and Mr. D. F.
Cannon and Hon. D. Schenk were added to the com-
mittee.

In 1877 the synod met in Charlotte, and the Committee
on Aggressiveness presented an abstract of the report
prepared, which was read and accepted, and a full report,
together with the abstract, were referred to a special com-
mittee^ consisting of Rev. H. G. Hill, Rev. E. F. Rock-
well and Dr. C. L. Hunter, to consider the same and
recommend action for the synod. This committee recom-
mended the following action, which was adopted :

1. That the abstract furnished by the chairman of the
original committee be published in the Appendix to the
Minutes.

2. That the report be returned to the chairman, Rev.

42 The Presbyterian Church

J. Rumple, with the request that he forward the facts and
suggestions of the report, embodied in at least six articles
under appropriate headlines, to the " North Carolina
Presbyterian" for publication.

The "Abstract" referred to above is as follows : " The
Committee on Aggressiveness having considered the
whole subject of the history and progress of the Presby-
terian Church in North Carolina, would respectfully re-
port that the Presbyterian Church was planted in North
Carolina about the year 1736, in Duplin county, and
shortly after this time in New Hanover county and Cum-
berland, by Scotch Presbyterians. About the same time
the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians settled in the western part
of the State. They rapidly increased, until at the period
of the Revolution, they numbered three or four thousand,
and constituted about one seventy-fifth of the population
of North Carolina. At this time^ after the lapse of a
hundred years, they numbered 16,544 communicants in
214 churches, with 113 ministers. The number of mem-
bers has been doubled about every thirty-five or forty
years, and at this time the communicants in the Synod of
North Carolina numbered about one in every seventy of
population, or, counting the Associate Reformed Pres-
byterians and the colored Presbyterians, they numbered
about one in every fifty of population. There has thus
been both an absolute and relative increase of membership
in our churches. The ratio of gain is about 33 per cent,
on the increase of population.

In comparison with other denominations, the Presby-
terians have increased in an intermediate ratio. They
have far exceeded all other denominations in the State
except two, and these two, according to the numbers re-
ported by them, have largely exceeded the Presbyterians.
Looking upon the whole work done by our church since

In North Carolina. 43

its origin in the State we have reason to thank God and
take courage for the future.

At the same time, doubtless, we have failed to perform
our whole duty. With our educated ministry, our intelli-
gent, influential and wealthy members, we ought to have
planted the Presbyterian Church in ever}^ corner of the
Stale. Without pausing to particularize the various
hindrances to our success, your committee would briefly
point out the measures they deem proper for the future
growth of Presbyterians.

1. The first is the more general employment of evan-
gelists. Let synods and Presbyteries and ministers press
this work, enlighten the churches, and strive to secure
more liberal contributions to this cause.

2. The next is the more frequent efforts of our settled
ministers to do missionary work in regions bordering
upon their churches.

3. An effort to preach more popular sermons and a
greater endeavor to secure immediate results from their
labors.

4. An awakening of our eldership to a sense of the re-
sponsibility resting upon them, especially in attending
church courts and shaping the legislation of the church.

5. The more systematic, orderly and punctual adminis-
tration of our financial affairs under the control of the
deacons. (Signed) J. Rumple, Chairman.

The foregoing paper and action of the synod seem not
to have been fully satisfactory, for on the next day the
following resolution was adopted :

" Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to
report at the next meeting of synod, 'as to what can be
done to promote the greater efficiency of evangelistic
woik within our bounds.' "

44 The Presbyterian Church

It is not stated in the recoid who offered this resolu-
tion, but it is ahogether probable that it was offered by
the Rev. Dr. B. F. Marable, who was at this time one
of the strongest debaters, as well as one of the strongest
advocates for aggressive evangelization in the synod.
The Moderator appointed as the committee to consider
this matter the Rev. ^Messrs. B. F. Marable, H. G. Hill,
J. W. Primrose, G. D. Parks and B. L. Beall.

Perhaps one of the greatest hindrances to aggressive-
ness in evangelistic work at this time was the confusion
produced in the minds of many of the brethren by the
different views held and advocated as to the nature, war-
rant and functions of the evangelist. Consequently a
committee had been appointed at the last meeting of
synod to bring in a report on this subject. The Rev.
John W. Primrose v;as chairman of this committee,
which reported the following resolution, which was
adopted :

"Resolved, That in the judgment of this synod, a
scriptural evangelist is just a presbyter commissioned to
preach the Gospel without pastoral charge, wherever in
the judgment of the Presbytery his services may be
needed for the conversion of sinners, and entrusted by
the Presbytery with just so much of the joint power as in
each case may be lawful and expedient."

Dr. Primrose was an evangelist of Orange Presbytery,
in the eastern part of the State, from 1871 until 1880, and
under his labors the churches of Tarboro, Nahalah, Lit-
tleton and Rocky Mount were organized. He then became
pastor of the Oxford, Shiloh and Grassy Creek churches,
and afterwards, for six years, he w-as pastor of the
Second Church in Wilmington, and in 1891 he returned
to his first love, the evangelistic work, having accepted

In North Carolina. 45

a call from the Synod of Missouri. He died at Green-
ville, Miss., February 13, 1907. His varied and fruitful
labors were crowned with abundant success. He was a
fine scholar, a forcible writer, preacher and debater, an
organizer and a teacher of youth, and he died beloved and
honored in the midst of abundant labors. In the Synod
of North Carolina in his day he ranked with Hill and
Marable, Alexander and Rumple and others in their noble
fight for aggressiveness in overtaking the destitutions.

In 1878 the synod met in Goldsboro, and the Commit-
tee on "What can be done to promote the greater effi-
ciency of Evangelistic Work in our bounds," made its
report, which was received. After considerable discus-
sion the whole subject was again recommitted to the com-
mittee, with the exception of the first item of the report,
with the instruction to report next year. The Rev. Dr.
Rumple was added to the committee, and the first item
of the report which was adopted was as follows :

" That synod does most earnestly urge upon those
Presbyteries having destitute territory that they employ
each at least one evangelist for his entire time."

In advocating the adoption of this resolution, the Rev.
Dr. Hill took the advanced ground that each Presbytery,
regardless of destitute territory, needed and should em-
ploy at least one evangelist. This position met with
strong opposition, and called forth a warm debate, but
the leaven was working and the time was not far distant
when this very position became the settled policy of the
church.

The following resolution was also adopted at this
meeting :

'' Resolved, That the synod shall hold a synodical mis-

46 The Presbyterian Church

sionary meeting on Friday night of each session; that
the agent, in addition to reading his report, be directed
to secure speakers to make addresses on the subject, and
tliat a collection, in connection with these services, be
taken for this cause."

In 1879 ^^^^ synod met in Statesville, and the Rev. Dr.
^larable, the chairman of the Committee on "What can
be done to promote the greater efficiency of Evangelistic
Work in our bounds," was absent. The committee,
however, submitted a report, which was laid on the table,
but the following resolution was adopted:

" Resolved, That the synod hereby appoint a synodical
agent of evangelistic labor, to consider and report an-
nually on white and colored evangelization in its bounds."

By this action the cause of evangelistic labor was sepa-
rated from the general cause of Sustentation, and it now
became the object of general interest and the subject of
much discussion in the church courts.

The Rev. Charles M. Payne was elected the first agent
of Evangelistic Labor, and on the evening of his appoint-
ment, October 24, 1879, the first synodical home mis-
sionary meeting ui North Carolina was held. These were
long steps in advance of anything done as yet along the
line of "aggressiveness' in overtaking the destitutions.

In 1880 the synod met in Raleigh, and the agent of
evangelistic labor, Rev. C. M. Payne, made his first
report. A summary of this report will show the vast
destitution of Presbyterian churches and Presbyterian
preaching in North Carolina at that time.

In Orange Presbytery alone there were 18 counties
which had no Presbyterian church within their bounds,
and nine counties had only one church each, making 27

In North Carolina. 47

counties in one Presbytery alone almost entirely destitute
of the Gospel through our church.

The synod at this time had five Presbyteries, 226
churches, and 18,356 communicants, and it included
within its bounds 94 counties. Of these 94 counties 29
had no Presbyterian church, 24 had only one each, making
a total of 53 counties in the State almost totally destitute
of Presbyterianism. And for this vast field there were
just two evangelists, Rev. Messrs. S. C. Alexander and
J. H. Thornwell, employed for their w^iole time, and five
others who gave as much as one-fourth of their time to
the work, but principally in old fields and not in purely
missionary territory. And the total amount contributed
in the synod for evangelistic work was not quite $2,300.

This report disclosing these facts necessarily called
forth ''considerable discussion," and doubtless awakened
in the minds and hearts of the brethren the stern fact that
these conditions must be met, and met heroically. Con-
sequently many were the ways and means suggested and
devised, but as yet the remedy seemed to lie within the
province of each Presbytery to act for itself. Therefore
the following resolution was adopted :

" Resolved, That the Presbyteries be urged to place
evangelists in their destitute fields ; that the settled minis-
ters be urged to do as much missionary work as possible,
and that the churches be urged to give freely to this ex-
ceedingly important cause."

This resolution was offered by the Rev. Dr. L. McKin-
non, who at that time was one of the most active and
vigorous members of the -synod, and he very strongly
advocated the plan as one remedy for overtaking the des-
titutions ; that the settled ministers, especially in the
towns and cities, become missionaries, to the extent of

48 The Presbyterian Church

giving an occasional Sunday and several days in the week
during a month to the great work outside of their own
congregations.

It would seem that almost every possible suggestion
had now been made to the Presbyteries, and the ministers,
elders, deacons and membership of the churches had been
repeatedly urged to put forth their best endeavors along
the line of aggressiveness, in overtaking the destitutions ;
and while a great deal had been accomplished, yet "much
land remained to be possessed."

In 1881 the synod met in Salisbury, and this meeting
marks an era in the history of the Presbyterian Church
in North Carolina.

The agent of Evangelistic Labor made his report, which
was approved, and it appeared from the report that the
resolutions adopted last year had not been without sub-
stantial results, especially among settled ministers who
had done much missionary work.

A paper was now offered, undersigned by the Rev.
Messrs. H. G. Hill, L. McKinnon, D. E. Jordan, W. E.
Mclllwaine and C. M. Payne, touching the supply of the
destitutions of the synod by synodical effort.

Attention is called to the names attached to this paper.
These names, together with B. F. Marable, J. Rumple, J.
W. Primrose and others, among whom were S. C. Alex-
ander, G. D. Parks, F. H. Johnston and J. C. Alexander,
arid the elders, George Allen, B. F. Hall and others,
represent some of the leading spirits in the early rise of
the synodical movement. The names of the Rev. Dr.
Hill and Mr. B. F. Hall have been intimately associated
with the synodical movement from its very inception until
the present time.

The paper now offered presented an entirely new fea-
ture from all previous suggestions in the missionary

In North Carolina. 49

operations of the synod. It raised the old questions of
the rights, functions and prerogatives of the synod as a
court or legislative body, and it naturally created ''much
discussion." The paper met with strong opposition, and
the debate continued at intervals for two or three days,
the question at issue being, " Did the synod, as a body,
have the right to conduct evangelistic work?" This
question of long standing was now fought out and set-
tled in the affirmative, and Synodical Home Missions zvas
born!

The paper having been carefully considered seriatim,
amended and adopted, is as follows :

" In view of the fact that there are in the bounds of
this synod about 53 counties of the 94, and about 500,000
people destitute, or nearly so, of any church ministrations
of our faith and order; and as this destitution is so un-
equally distributed among the Presbyteries, that some of
them cannot possibly for at least a number of years
occupy their destitute regions, the following scheme of
missionary labor is presented to the synod for careful
consideration, and, if found practicable, for adoption:

''i. That this synod appoint two ministers to labor in
the destitute regions of our bounds, and that Presbyteries
comprising this synod be requested to authorize these
ministers to labor in their bounds as evangelists.

"2. That a committee, consisting of Mr. George Allen,
of Orange Presbytery; Mr. William R. Kenan, of Wil-
mington Presbytery ; Mr. S. H. Wiley, of Concord Pres-
bytery ; Mr. E. T. McKethan, of Fayetteville Presbytery,
and Gen. R. D. Johnston, of Mecklenburg Presbtery,
be appointed to raise the sum of $3,000, not by ordinary
church collections, but my special efforts among indi-
viduals of means and such as feel an interest in this work.

50 The Presbyterian Church

"3. That those home missionaries appointed by synod
are not to enter upon their work until the chairman of the
committee appointed to raise the funds shall report to
the chairman of the Committee of Synodical Evangelistic
Labor that the necessary funds have been secured.

"4. That Rev. C. M. Payne, Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D.,
Rev. J. Rumple, Rev. G. D. Parks and Rev. J. C. Alex-
ander, or their successors in office as chairmen of Home
Missions in their respective Presbyteries, be appointed a
Synodical Evangelistic Committee to superintend the
general conduct of this work, and^ if necessary, between
the meetings of synod, fill vacancies by election.

''5. That in order to prevent any conflict between Pres-
byterial and Synodical rights and duties, these home mis-
sionaries shall labor in any Presbytery only when invited
by the chairman of Home Missions in that Presbytery,
and then in conformity to the suggestions of the local
authorities of said Presbytery."

Thus synodical Home Missions was launched, and it
was ordered that a committee of five, consisting of Revs.
D. E. Jordan, L. McKinnon, C. M. Payne and Elders
A. G. Neel and S. C. Rankin, be appointed to nominate
the first synodical evangelists or home missionaries.

This committee reported recommending the Rev. D. E.
Jordan and the Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine. The report was
adopted, and these brethren were duly elected as the first
synodical missionaries.

In 1882 the synod met in Asheville. The Rev. C. M.
Payne, chairman of the new Synodical Evangelistic Com-
mittee, made his report, which seemed to forecast a com-
plete failure of the scheme of the synod. For the past
year the success of the scheme depended upon the raising
of $3,000 before the evangelists could enter upon their
work, and a more serious question was to arrange for a

In North Carolina. 51

similar amount from year to year. Both the Finance and
Evangelistic Committees used every means possible and
labored faithfully to secure the required sum immediately
after the last meeting of synod, and a considerable
amount was raised, but not the whole amount. And in
the meantime the Rev. D. E. Jordan had accepted and the
Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine had declined the position of
synodical missionary. The committee met in Salisbury
February 7, 1882, and elected the Rev. L. McKinnon
in the place of Mr. Mclllwaine, and resolved to renew
their efforts. The committee met again in Raleigh Feb-
ruary 24, 1882, and in the mean time the Rev. Mr.
McKinnon had declined to accept the position of mis-
sionary, and the Rev. Mr. Jordan had been hindered from
entering the field on account of the failure to raise the
required $3,000, and the Finance Committee reported
that the amount already pledged had been promised con-
ditionally, and that there was no prospect of raising the
required $3,000 under the present plan. This committee
claimed that another plan must be devised, which would
provide for the future, and enlist the co-operation of the
Presbyteries and the churches. It was said that the
scheme had failed to enlist the endorsement and co-opera-
tion of the Presbyteries, and had met with '^decided oppo-
sition all over the synod, as being inexpedient and imprac-
ticable."

The Evangelistic Committee, after calling attention to
the greatly increased interest and activity by the Presby-
teries in the work during the past year, which was rightly
attributed to the synodical movement, with deep regret
asked to be discharged. The "movement" at present
seemed to be a dismal failure, and its promoters were
keenly disappointed and greatly discouraged, but it was
not a failure — it had been born, and, like an infant, it

52 The Presbyterian Church

must needs be helpless and dependent for a time, but it
had been boni and born to live.

In 1883 the synod met in Wilmington. The Rev. C.
IM. Payne tendered his resignation as agent of Evangelis-
tic Labor, and the Rev. James C. Alexander was elected
as his successor.

Dr. Payne did a splendid work during the time of his
being agent of Evangelistic Labor, and indeed he never
ceased to be, as long as he lived, a man of power and a
brother beloved in the synod. He was a man of com-
manding personal appearance, endowed with fine intel-
lectual qualities, and possessed a voice and manner as
soft and gentle as a woman, and through his untiring
efforts by preaching, visiting, letter-writing, persuasive
manners, and general popularity, many souls were won
for the j\Iaster and much was done in awakening the
minds of the people and arousing interest in the great
cause of missions. He was a staunch friend of the great
Synodical Movement, which he helped to launch in 1881,
until the time of his death, which occurred September 13,
1900.

During the time of the agency of the Rev. J. C. Alex-
ander, after the retirement of Dr. Payne, the synod for
several years was occupied largely with other things than
the cause of Home ^Missions, especially with judicial mat-
ters.

Mr. Alexander was a man of great executive ability,
and he worked faithfully and zealously for the great
cause, which temporarily had received a backset, but
which was destined to arise again, in due time with re-
newed vigor and power.

In 1884 the synod met at Winston, and the agent's
report showed that 14 ministers were employed as evan-
gelists by the Presbyteries for a part of their time; and

In Xorth Carolina. 53

that a net gain of eight churches and 270 members had
been made during the past year ; but there still remained
29 counties in which there was no Presbyterian church,
and 24 counties in which there was but one church each.

In 1885 the synod met at Reidsville, and this meeting
was largely occupied with a judicial case. The agent of
Evangelistic Labor, Rev. J. C. Alexander, was the Mode-
rator of this meeting, and his report this year showed the
work to be "prosperous and encouraging."

At this meeting the Rev. J. Henry Smith, D. D., was
appointed to deliver an address next year on the " Rise,
Progress, and Prospects of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States," and the Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine was
appointed to deliver an address on " The Duty of the
Church in Securing a Larger Number of Ministers."

The next year, in 1886, the synod met in Concord, and
was still occupied with judicial matters.

The Rev. Dr. Smith delivered his address on the " Rise,
Progress and Prospects of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States," and the Rev. Dr. Hill delivered an
address on " Ministerial Support," and both of these
brethren received the thanks of the synod.

At this meeting the Rev. J. C. Alexander laid down
the work as agent of Evangelistic Labor, and the Rev.
J. W. Primrose was elected as his successor.

On November 15, 1886, soon after this meeting of
synod, the Rev. J. C. Alexander suddenly passed from
earth to heaven. He was a faithful preacher and a zeal-
ous workman — practical, pointed, earnest and judicious.
In Orange Presbytery, especially, he was a wise and
trusted counsellor and a brother beloved. He was a man
of deep convictions and steady purpose, and untiring in
his efforts for the spread of the Gospel. For many years
he was entrusted with the conduct of Home Missions in

54 The Presbyterian Church

Orange Presbytery, and the additional work of the synod,
together with the cares of a large pastorate, were thought
to be by his friends too heavy a burden to bear, and pos-
sibly shortened his days. He did a noble work, and left
behind him a noble record. He loved his God and his
people, and his people loved him, and his end was perfect
peace.

In 1887 t^^^ synod met in Fayetteville, and continued to
be much engaged with judicial matters.

The Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine at this meeting, according
to appointment, delivered his address on " The Duty of
the Church in Securing a Larger Number of Ministers,"
and he received the thanks of the synod for the address.

The closing words of the report of Dr. Primrose, now
the agent of Evangelistic Labor, were as follows : " There
is gratifying evidence of progress and increasing zeal in
this department of labor throughout the synod."

This being true, and yet no action being taken, and
no effort being made to revise the plan and carry out the
great principle adopted in 1881, was calculated to dis-
courage many of the members of the synod, and conse-
quently some of them, particularly the Rev. W. E. Mclll-
waine, went away from this meeting of synod much dis-
satisfied on account of what was not done, and deter-
mined that something should be done at the next synod,
looking to the evangelization of the State, either by
Synodical Home Missions or by some other possible and
feasible plan. And the next meeting of synod was des-
tined to be a memorable one in North Carolina.

CHAPTER V.

The Inauguration of Synodical Home Missions in
North Carolina and the ]\Ien of the Times.

The meeting of synod held in Goldsboro in 1888, in
many respects, was unquestionably one of the most re-
markable meetings of the kind ever held in the State.

It was remarkable from the fact that a ruling elder,
for the first time in the history of the church, was elected
Moderator, the Hon. A. M. Scales, who at this time was
the Governor of North Carolina, was the Moderator of
this meeting. It was remarkable from the fact that it
was freighted with an unusual number of memorials,
praying for relief and demanding great and important
changes, and laying the foundation for great enterprises.
It was also remarkable from the fact of the able and
memorable speeches that were made, the amount of work
accomplished, and last, but not least, the inauguration of
Synodical Home I^Iissions.

Another thing in connection with this meeting which
was remarkable, was the calling of a convention in Golds-
boro on the day before the synod met, October 23, 1888,
to consider the interests of Home ]\Iissions.

There is no record of this convention in the minutes
of synod, but the facts are these: The Rev. Wilham E.
Mclllwaine was one of the brethren who went away from
the last meeting of synod at Fayetteville, feeling much
discouraged on account of what was not done for the

56 ThK pRKSnYTERIAN ChURCII

cause of State evangelization, and it was he who con-
ceived the thought of calling this convention. He wrote
to the chairmen of the Home Mission Committees of the
Presbyteries, he himself being the chairman in Mecklen-
burg Presbytery, and sent to them the following call for
the convention, which was duly signed by each of them.

Synodical Home Missionary Convention.

"After conference with a number of the friends of this
cause in the synod, we the undersigned chairmen of the
Home Missions Committee in our respective Presbyteries
do hereby call a convention to meet in Goldsboro, N. C,
on Tuesday the 23d of October (inst), for the purpose
of giving this subject a more thorough consideration
than it usually receives in the synod. The following pro-
gram has been agreed upon :

" The opening address — Rev. F. H. Johnston, D. D. ;
addresses by each of the chairmen of the Home Missions
Committees in the different Presbyteries, setting forth as
briefly as possible the extent, needs, and prospects of their
respective fields ; addresses of evangelists of Presbyteries,
with the map of synod before them, in reference to their
special work; a general discussion of the following sub-
jects, in which all present shall be invited to participate —

''i. Ought there not be a more equal division of the
synod among the Presbyteries?

''2. Would it not be advisable for the- synod, at the
approaching meeting, to take steps to place at least one
evangelist in its mission field?

''3. What are some of the hindrances to this work in
the Presbyteries and synod, and how can these be re-
moved ?

In Xorth Carolina. 57

''4. What should be done to secure a thorough consid-
eration of the subject of Home Missions at each regular
meeting of synod?

(Signed) Alexander Sprunt, Orange Presbytery;
R. B. Anderson, Concord Presbytery;
H. G. Hill, Fayetteville Presbytery;
P. H. Hoge, Wilmington Presbytery ;
W. E. McIllwaine,, ^Mecklenburg Pres'y."

The convention was held, and the foregoing program
was fully carried out. A memorial was adopted to be
presented to the synod the next day. x\nd a paper was
prepared for this convention by the Rev. P. H. Hoge,
D. D., on the "constitutionality of synodical evangelists."
This paper was afterwards published in the " North
Carolina Presbyterian," and it was a most able, con-
vincing and unanswerable argument in favor of the great
cause at issue in these times. But Dr. Hoge, perhaps,
was not as familiar as some other members of this con-
vention with the fact that this question and kindred topics
had been discussed in the synod for years, and that the
great principle touching these matters had been settled
in 1881. Dr. Hoge and Dr. Sprunt became members of
the synod in 1885, and at the present time they ranked
with Drs. Hill, Marable, Johnston, Primrose, Mclllwaine
and others as leading spirits in the great Synodical Move-
ment.

Dr. Mclllwaine had spent much of his time as a most
successful evangelist, and, like Dr. Primrose and others,
knew from personal experience and observation the great
need of evangelists, and he had the joy and the satisfac-
tion of seeing the convention which he had called a great
success, and destined to be far reaching and blessed in
its results, as one of the means of reviving and putting

58 TiiE Presbyterian Church

into operation the paper which he had signed and the
plan adopted in 1881 for overtaking the destitutions by
"synodical effort." He did a noble work for the synod,
and especially for Mecklenburg Presbytery before leaving
the bounds of his native State. He was intimately asso-
ciated with almost every forward movement of the church.
He was personally connected with the first ste^s taken at
this meeting of synod and afterwards in founding the
synod's Orphans' Home. He left the synod in 1892 for
wider fields of usefulness, and at the present time is the
president of the Alabama Presbyterian College for Men
at Anniston, Ala.

On the next day after this convention the synod met,
and the following memorials were presented : One from
the Evangelical Alliance of Wilmington, in regard to the
State laws concerning temperance; one from the Chapel
Hill Church, touching the interests of Presbyterianism at
the University; one from the Presbyterian Lady Man-
agers of the " Home and Hospital" in Charlotte, N. C.
This memorial was referred to a commission of which
the Rev. J. Rumple, D. D.^ was made chairman, on the,
adoption of the following resolution offered by Rev. W.
E. Mclllwaine :

''Resolved, That in the judgment of this synod the
time has come to take steps looking to the establishing of
an orphans' home within our bounds, and that a commis-
sion be appointed to take the whole matter in charge,
to consider and execute whatever may seem wise and
practicable in putting such an enterprise on a permanent
basis."

Thus it will be seen that the great enterprise of the
Orphans' Home, now the joy and piide of the synod,
was launched at this meeting.

REV. W. E. M'lLWAiN, D. D.

In North Carolina. 59

The two other memorials presented related to the burn-
ing and vital questions which had burdened the minds
and hearts of some of the brethren for so many years —
" How shall we overtake the destitutions of our State ?"
One of these memorials was from Orange Presbytery,
and the other one was from the Synodical Convention,
and it is noted that both these memorials embodied the
same thought, looking to the division of territory.

The memorial from Orange Presbytery had its origin
at the spring meeting of Presbytery, six months before
the convention, and the meeting of synod, when a com-
mittee of three — Dr. Johnston, Dr. Sprunt and Mr. W. S.
Primrose — w-ere appointed to draft said memorial to the
synod. It was presented to the Presbytery at the fall
meeting by the Rev. Dr. Johnston and adopted. This
Presbytery had felt for many years its deep responsibility,
and its utter inability to overtake its destitutions, owing
to its vast unoccupied territory, and much time and labor
were spent at each meeting of Presbytery in discussing
these matters. The Rev. Dr. Johnston had been elected,
and was now serving as general evangelist for the Pres-
bytery, and he, with others, w^as thoroughly convinced
that old Orange ought to be divided, and that in some
way the synod ought to share the responsibility in sup-
plying the needs.

The follow'ing is the memorial from Orange Presby-
tery :

'' The Presbytery of Orange respectfully memoralize
the Synod of North Carolina to take into consideration
the subjoined statement of the extent and present need
of the evangelistic field within the bounds of the Presby-
tery, and to take such action as its wisdom may suggest
for the assistance and relief of the Presbytery in the
prosecution of this great work:

6o The Presbyterian Church

"i. The Presbytery of Orange, the oldest existing Pres-
bytery south of the Potomac, and mother of all the Pres-
byteries which now compose this synod, is in territorial
extent nearly as large as all the others combined. It em-
braces about one-half the population of the State — not
far from 700,000 souls, 482,000, or nearly two-thirds,
being white. There are 44 counties and parts of coun-
ties in the Presbytery, in 20 of which there is not a
single organized church of our faith and order. With
three exceptions^ these counties are massed together in
the eastern part of the Presbytery, between the Atlantic
Coast Line Railway and the Ocean. The Presbytery thus
presents to view a territory about evenly divided by the
railway mentioned, one-half of which, as to Presbyterian-
ism, is missionary ground ; and this ground, occupied by
our church, is nearly, if not quite, two-thirds of the en-
tire missionary field of the synod — ^that is to say, Orange
Presbytery has twice as large an evangelistic field for her
share of labor as the other four Presbyteries together
have. This disproportion in the extent in their respective
fields of Home Mission labor and enterprise, is felt,
justly, as we believe, to be a burden far beyond her
strength by the mother Presbytery; and this synod, the
only court which has, according to the constitution of the
church, authority to determine the metes and bounds of
the Presbyteries within her bounds, is respectfully asked
to consider this matter, and, if it be possible, to equalize
the shares of the Presbyteries respectively in, the work of
Home Evangelization.

''2. The Presbytery is moved at this time specially to
present this appeal to the synod for the reason it has for
believing its large unoccupied field to be one which in-
vites a far more extensive planting of our church than
it is possible for the Presbytery to accomplish with the

In North Carolina. 6i

resources at its command. Recent special exploration of
the eastern district of the Presbytery has shown open
doors which should be entered at once, and would be, if it
were in the power of the Presbytery. It has done some-
thing in this region in the last fifteen years. Half a
dozen churches have been organized at promising points,
one of which is already self-supporting, and two or three
new fields of hopeful labor are at this moment being
entered in counties which, until lately, had not heard the
voice of a Presbyterian preacher. But other fields also
remain to be occupied, and will remain thus, because of
the sheer inability of the Presbytery to occupy. It has
reached apparently the limit of its strength in keeping as
it does now four or five evangelists in the field, and yet
four or five more are sorely needed, if the Presbytery is
to keep apace with the widening area of labor. The
Presbytery therefore earnestly desires that the synod give
this subject the consideration to which it seems to be en-
titled, and, in its wisdom, suggest or initiate some mode
of procedure which may relieve the Presbytery in the
present emergency. Whether it shall be by a readjust-
ment of the boundaries which define the existing Presby-
teries, or by the erection of a new Presbytery, or by a
scheme of synodical evangelistic labor, or by a co^nsensus
of the Presbyteries, by which a practical co-operation in
the work may be secured ; whether by any one, or by all
these, or by any other feasible method, the Presbytery
does not venture to say; but it does desire, and it hopes,
that some way may be found for removing the dispropor-
tionate and unequal burdens of the Presbyteries, and so
far the more effective prosecution of the great work of
State evangelization.

(Signed) F. H. Johnston, Stated Clerk/'

62 The Presbyterian Church

On the same day, immediately after the noon recess,
the memorial from the Synodical Convention was pre-
sented as follows :

" The committee appointed by the convention lately
held in this city, in the interests of Home Missions, re-
spectfully memoralize the synod to take suitable action in
regard to the following matters:

''I. That a committee be appointed to thoroughly con-
sider the question of the more equal division of the terri-
tory of synod among the Presbyteries, to report at the
next meeting of synod, and to publish their report in the
'' North Carolina Presbyterian" at least two months be-
fore said meeting of synod.

"2. In order to bring the subject of Home Missions
prominently before the synod, to make a standing order
to consider the subject embracing the causes of Susten-
tation and evangelistic work, at 11 o'clock A. M. on the
second day of its sessions, and to give this subject prefer-
ence over all other subjects.

"3. We also memoralize the synod to take the neces-
sary steps at its present meeting to place at least one
evangelist in its missionary field."

The first and second sections of this memorial w^ere
placed upon the docket, and the third section, which in-
volved the very heart of the matters at issue, was referred
to a special committee, consisting of the Rev. Messrs. J.
W. Primrose, P. H. Hoge, Alexander Sprunt, H. G. Hill,
J. M. Wharey and W. E. Mclllwaine.

This was a strong committee of representative men,
each Presbytery being represented, with Dr. Primrose
as chairman, and on the morning of the next day — Octo-
ber 26, 1888 — ^the following report was submitted to
svnod :

In North Carolina. 63

" Your committee appointed to take into consideration
and to report suitable action on the memorial of the Con-
vention of Home Missions, touching the placing of at
least one evangelist in the mission field of the synod, beg
leave to report the following action for synod's adoption :

"i. That synod grants the petition of the memorialists
and agrees to place at least one evangelist in the field.

"2. That a committee be appointed, with instructions,
if the way be clear as to support, to select such evangelist
or evangelists, to fix his salary and direct his labors until
the next meeting of synod.

''3. While laboring within the bounds of any Presby-
tery he shall be under the direction of the Home Mission
Committee of that Presbytery.

''4. His powers within the bounds of any Presbytery,
with reference to the reception of members, organizing
churches, ordaining and installing elders and deacons,
shall be only such as are conferred upon him by said
Presbytery.

(Signed) "J. W. Primrose, Chainnan"

A battle royal was now on. The infant which had been
born in 1881, and which had been asleep and gaining
strength, had now awakened with increased strength, and
almost matured vigor, and was demanding its right to
exercise its powers. The same old questions of the con-
stitutionality of synodical evangelists, the right of the
synod to elect evangelists, and to elect evangelistic com-
mittees with powxrs to act, had to be met, and they were
met in a masterly debate. The opposition was strong,
and the end of the conflict was not to be seen until 1891,
but, for the present, the battle was fought and the vic-
tory was won.

No one who was present at this meeting of synod will

64 The Presbyterian Church

ever forget the masterly speeches delivered by many of
the brethren who participated in the debate, especially the
notable speech delivered by the Rev. Dr. B. F. Marable.
At this late date it would be impossible to give a synop-
sis, or even an adequate description, of that wonderful
speech. It was full of wit, humor, pathos and sarcasm,
and it bristled with illustrations, ludicrous and otherwise,
and it was delivered with rare eloquence and telling
power. It came spontaneously from a massive brain and
a big heart, overjoyed at the prospect of synodical mis-
sions becoming a reality, and it made a profound impres-
sion.

Dr. ■Marable was no ordinary man. He was notably
an independent and original thinker, and possessed the
power of concentrating his thought upon a subject in a
remarkable manner, and of reaching conclusions step by
step through ^ masterful power of analysis, which, when
the conclusion was reached and the thought projected,
seldom failed to convince his hearers. Some one, writing
of him after his death, said : " Dr. Marable added to his
analytical and logical powers a loftiness of conception
that came from a lofty soul, and that lent a glow of fire to
all that he said. He was not only a man of great intellect,
but a man of great heart, and the heart warmed the
speech that the intellect created. He thought great
thoughts about God and eternity, about sin and retribu-
tion, about grace and redemption, but these great thoughts
were not the speculations of the mind, nor the imagina-
tions of fancy, but the teachings of the Holy Spirit to a
soul that was truly humble, because its thoughts and
aspirations were turned upward to that which was greater
than itself. He received the things of God with the faith
of a little child. And while his intellect cut through the
shallow sophistries that were urged against Divine truth

In North Carolina. 65

and revelation, yet when it came to that which was above
the grasp of human comprehension, he simply wondered
and adored." He became a Presbyterian from the Baptist
Church in 1864, and it is said that the change wrought
in his views was the result of a long and painful struggle,
and having reached conclusions satisfactory to himself,
he was always tolerant to those who differed with him,
and he supported the principles he avowed most manfully
unto the end. He calmly and painlessly passed to his
reward on April 14, 1892.

After the adoption of the report of the Committee on
the Memorial of the Convention the following evangelistic
committee, provided for in the report and to serve as a
special committee for one year, was then appointed — viz. :
Rev. Messrs. J. W. Primrose (chairman), Alexander
Sprunt, R. B. Anderson, H. G. Hill, P. H. Hoge, W. E.
Mclllwaine, and Elders A. M. Scales, M. W. Hill, J. W.
McNeill, B. F. Hall and Rufus Barringer.

The memorial from Orange Presbytery was referred
to this committee to report at the next meeting of synod.

Thus ended, so far as synodical missions were con-
cerned, the most notable meeting of synod perhaps, ever
held in the history of the church. The great question,
''How shall we overtake our destitutions?" which had
been discussed so long, had now culminated into a definite
plan and purpose, and the great Synodical Movement or
"effort," which hadi been paralyzed and slumbering for
a number of years, had now become a reality and had be-
gun its career, to move onward and upward for the glory
of God and the salvation of multitudes in the old North
State.

But it now remained to put the work into practical
operation, and to place the whole scheme upon a perma-
nent basis. This necessarily would require time and labor,

66 The Presbyterian Church

as well as the profound study and wisdom of the com-
mittee charged with this most important duty.

One of the leading and active members of synod at this
time, and until he left the synod in 1899, especially per-
taining to all matters connected with Home Missions,
was the Rev. P. H. Hoge, D. D. Soon after the meeting
in Goldsboro the special Evangelistic Committee met in
Raleigh. Dr. Hoge was made the secretary of the com-
mittee, and continued to be after the committee became
permanent, and it devolved upon him to conduct an ex-
tensive correspondence and to decide many matters of
importance.

The memorial of Orange Presbytery had been carefully
studied in connection with the distribution of territory,
and at this meeting of the committee in Raleigh, Dr.
Hoge proposed an overture to the synod to erect two new
Presbyteries, to be named Raleigh and Asheville. The
Mecklenburg members did not think the time had come
for the formation of Asheville Presbytery, but the other
new Presbytery was agreed upon, and was formed by the
next synod, and named ''Albemarle." At this meeting of
the committee Dr. Hoge strongly advocated the election
of the Rev. W. D. Morton as synodical evangelist, which
afterwards resulted in his election. Owing to the illness
of Dr. Primrose, chairman of the committee, Dr. Hoge
prepared and presented to the synod of 1889 at Char-
lotte the report of the committee, outlining the plan of
future work and recommending that the committee be
made a permanent organization. He also prepared for
the synod of 1891 an elaborate report on the future
"Work, Policy and Organization" of the Synodical Home
Mission Committee.

It w^ill be noted in the minutes of the synod that each
of the first three articles of that report was adopted on

RtV. P. H. HOGE, D. D.

In North Carolixa. ^^j

a different day. Between the lines of that fact is to be
read the unrecorded history of a great debate, in which
the whole policy and plan of the committee was assailed
and sternly fought by a strong but small minority of the
synod. It largely devolved upon Dr. Hoge to defend the
report before the synod, and as a result of the debate the
policy of the committee was sustained by an overwhelm-
ing majority.

The first article of that report was as follows :

" Synod recognizes that upon it and its Presbyteries is
laid the responsibility for the evangelization of its terri-
tory, so far as it can be done by the Presbyterian Church
in the United States, and in humble reliance upon the
Head of the Church receives this trust from His hand
and pledges itself to its faithful prosecution."

The adoption of this article firmly nailed to the mast-
head the purpose of the synod to evangelize its territory
without outside aid. When the General Assembly con-
sidered the reorganization of its plan of Home Mission
work, Dr. Hoge was sent by the committee to the Assem-
bly at Macon, Ga., in 1893, to present the North Carolina
plan before the Standing Committee of the Assembly;
and although the Assembly's Special Committee presented
a different plan, the Standing Committee recommended
the North Carolina plan to the Assembly, and by the
courtesy of that body Dr. Hoge was heard in explanation
of the plan. It was adopted by the Assembly, and remains
the essential policy of Home Mission work in the South-
ern Presbyterian Church to this day. Again, in 1885, a
Presbytery in Virginia overtured the Assembly to revert
to the old plan of conducting Home Mission work. Dr
Hoge was a member of that Assembly, and was made
chairman of the Standing Committee on Home Missions,

6S The Presbyterian Church

and both the committee and the Assembly again sustained
the North Carolina plan, which remains the plan of the
Assembly to the present day.

In 1889, at Charlotte, N. C, the Special Evangelistic
Committee reported to synod the election of the Rev. W.
D. Morton, D. D., as the first synodical evangelist in
North Carolina, and that he had entered uf>on his work
June 7, 1889. This was a happy selection — one that gave
universal satisfaction — and was crowned with wonderful
success. Dr. ]\Iorton himself made a report of his labors,
which thrilled the synod, and w^as received with profound
gratitude. He showed that from June the 7th to October
the 7th, a period of exactly four months,, he had visited
130 families, held 200 services, witnessed 114 confessions
and renewals, added to the church 82 persons, baptized
17 adults and 17 infants, ordained i elder and i deacon,
and had collected $189 for the work. This report made a
profound impression, and Dr. IMorton was commended
to the people for their support, by their contributions and
their prayers.

The plan submitted by the committee for re-districting
the whole territory, after a few changes, was adopted.
By this plan the Presbytery of Albemarle was formed,
and its first meeting was held in Goldsboro, N. C,
November 20, 1889.

The plan for the permanent conduct and support of the
work was adopted — namely : "That a permanent commit-
tee on synodical evangelization be constituted, the chair-
man of which shall be the synod's agent of Evangelistic
Labor, and which shall be composed of the chairmen of
the Committee of Home Missions from each Presbytery,
and one ruling elder from each Presbytery." For the
support of the work it was recommended that a certain
amount of money be apportioned to the Presbyteries an-

In North Carolina. 69

nually, to be raised quarterly, and that an annual collec-
tion be taken by all the churches for the cause.

Under this plan the Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D.,
was elected agent of Evangelistic Labor, and he was
therefore chairman of the committee, and the committee
thus constituted was composed of the foUovv-ing members :
Rev. Messrs. Alexander Sprunt (chairman), D. I. Craig,
C.A. Munroe, H.G. Hill, P. H. Hoge, W. E. Mclllwaine,
and Elders Hon. A. M. Scales, I. H. Foust, Dr. J. W.
McNeill, B. F. Hall, Gen. R. Barringer and Samuel
Watkins.

The work of the Special Evangelistic Committee ap-
pointed at Goldsboro was now completed, and the com-
mittee did their work wisely and well — all honor to them !

The great cause of Synodical Home Missions was now
fully inaugurated, and having arisen to a permanent
position in the economy of the church, we will attempt in
the future pages of this book to trace its development
and progress.

CHAPTFR VI.

The Progress of Synodical Home Missions in North
Carolina, and the Men of the Times.

In the Book of Wisdom it is written : " There is a
time for every purpose under the heaven." God has His
purpose, and His own time for every purpose; and not
only so, but He has the right men in the right place, and
at the right time, to meet every purpose. The eyes of the
Synod of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1900 were
turned toward the Rev. Egbert W. Smith, D. D., Rev.
W. D. Morton, D. D., Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D., and
others, as the right men who had appeared upon the scene
of action at the right time. The efforts of the church had
been crowned with wonderful success, and this meeting
was characterized by intense enthusiasm. It will be
remembered by the eloquent and stirring addresses made
by these brethren and others, which were followed by the
raising of nearly $2,000 on the floor of the synod for the
cause of Synodical Home Missions ! The synod sang the
long-metre doxology in grateful acknowledgment to God
for His rich blessing.

On motion of Dr. Alorton the Rev. E. W. Smith, D.
D., was immediately and unanimously elected General
Synodical Evangelist, in addition to Dr. Morton. The
Rev. Dr. Sprunt was re-elected agent of Evangelistic
Labor and chairman of the committee.

The report showed that there had been eight Presby-
terial evangelists in the field during the past year, and
cheering reports came from all parts of the synod. There

In North Carolina. 71

was much cause for thankfulness, and in the Address to
the Churches, written by the Rev. Jacob Henry Smith,
D. D., it was said : '' We think that the present meeting
of synod will be admitted to be one of the best and most
encouraging ever held, and that it will mark an era in our
North Carolina Church for progress and blessing in the
matter of spreading the Gospel at home and abroad."

It was indeed a great meeting, but we must remember,
however, that at this time there were 96 counties in the
State, and a population of more than a milion and a half,
and in 2y of these counties there was no Presbyterian
church, and in 19 of them only one church each, making
46 counties and a vast population almost entirely without
the influence of the Presbyterian Church. The number
of Presbyterian communicants in the State at this time
was something more than 26,000, and the contributions
to Systematic Beneficence was nearly $56,000 — a gain
of $13,000 over the last year.

Soon after this meeting the committee met in Greens-
boro, November 25, 1890, to determine the work of Dr.
Smith as General Evangelist. It was decided that his
especial work should be the raising of funds for placing
more laborers in the field.

The committee met again in Greensboro February 3,
1891, and Dr. Smith reported a subscription of $2,000
secured for the work. On the basis of this subscription
it was agreed to elect one other general evangelist, and
that further elections should be local or district evange-
lists. The Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine was elected general
evangelist, and the Rev. John C. McMullen was elected
district evangelist, and subsequently the Rev. R. P. Pell
was added to the force as district evangelist.

At this meeting of the committee, also, the Rev. Dr.
Morton gave notice that he would retire from the work

^2 The Presbyterian Church

some time during the year, and the Rev. John M. Rose,
D. D., was elected general evangelist to take Dr. Morton's
place when he retired. The committee met again in
Fayetteville June 26, 1890, Dr. Smith having given notice
of his resignation, owing to an affection of his throat.
The committee declined to accept Dr. Smith's resignation,
but granted him a vacation of six months with the earnest
hope that his strength might be regained and that his
almost marvellous success in the work of raising funds
might be continued.

In order that the w^ork might not suffer in the mean-
time, the Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D,, was elected, for
all his time, to take Dr. Smith's place,, to superintend
the work and act as secretary, treasurer and evangelist.
The Rev. Dr. Smith, however, resumed his special work
before the meeting of the next synod, and his efforts were
crowned with great success.

Thus it vvill be seen that the committee had been very
active and faithful, and had made many very important
moves since the last meeting of synod. When the synod
met at Durham in 1891 a full report was made; and, as
already stated, an elaborate report on the " Work, Policy
and Organization" of the great ''Movement" was sub-
mitted to synod and adopted, and it remains essentially
the same until this day, as well as being the plan and
policy adopted by the General Assembly.

The committee was authorized "for the ensuing year"
to set apart a financial agent, w4iose w^hole time might be
devoted to the work of laying the cause upon the hearts
and consciences of the people, in order that local evange-
lists might be multiplied. This office of financial agent
was in its nature temporary, and was due to the desire to
retain the service and utilize the gifts of both Dr. Smith
and Dr. Sprunt. During the year this office was merged

In North Carolina. 73

into that of superintendent, which has remained perma-
nent, and which was constituted at this meeting by the
following article:

"The offices of agent of Sustentation and agent of
Evangelistic Labor shall be discontinued, and synod shall
annually elect a superintendent of Synodical Missions,
who shall be ex-officio chairman, secretary and treasurer
of the Synodical Committee."

The duties of this office were clearly set forth and
defined in the report, and the Rev. Alexander Sprunt,
D. D., was unanimously elected the first superintendent.

The committee, as now constituted, was composed of
the following persons: Rev. A. Sprunt, D. D., superin-
tendent; Rev. E. W. Smith, D. D., financial agent; Rev.
D. I. Craig, Rev. C. A. Munroe, Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D.,
Rev. P. H. Hoge, D. D., Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine, D. D.,
Rev. W. D. Morton, D. D., and Eiders J. M. Rogers, J.
G. Hall, Dr. J. W. McNeill, B. F. Hall, John E. Gates
and J. R. Young.

In October of this year (1891) the Rev. Dr. Morton
and his assistant, the Rev. C. W. Maxwell, retired from
the work, and soon after the Rev. John C. McMulldn
retired from the work. Mr. McMulUen was a pioneer
evangelist in the eastern territory of the State for nearly
a year. He was a faithful and untiring worker, and did
a splendid work in a short time, in laying the foundations
and preparing the way for others who were to follow him.
Mr. Maxwell, for eight months, was the faithful assistant
of Dr. Morton, and for some time after Dr. Morton re-
tired from the field he continued in the Home Mission
work. It was his custom to be on the ground, where a
meeting was to be held, at least a week a'head of Dr.
Morton, and by his daily services and faithful visiting

74 The Presbyterian Church

and general activity the people were prepared for a great
meeting. Tlie results of the labors of such men as Messrs.
McMullen and Maxwell and others who go before and
prepare the Avay can never be tabulated, but they are very
great and of a lasting character, and to such men the
church should ever be grateful.

The work of the Rev. W. D. Morton, D. D., as the
first synodical evangelist in North Carolina, cannot be
estimated. He came to the synod just at the right time,
and seems to have been specially fitted for the work. His
high standing as a minister of the Gospel, his dignity of
manner and scholarly attainments, his zeal for the cause
of the IMaster, his faithful and effective preaching, and
his large experience in mission work gave to the work in
North Carolina a standing and an impetus which were
very necessary in the beginning, and upon which so much,
depended in the future. Dr. ]\Iorton was called to North
Carolina from the synod of Missouri, but previously he
had been a synodical evangelist in the Synod of Kentucky,
and was really one of the founders of the great synodical
movement in that State. In a published account of the
meeting of the Synod of Kentucky in 1881, it was said
''the most important and intensely interesting business
that came before the synodi was introduced by the Rev.
W. D. Morton." He had collected facts and statistics,
and elaborated a plan of evangelistic work for the synod,
contemplating its prosecution on a larger scale than at
any previous period. Its presentation was accompanied
by a clear, forcible, powerful speech, which enthused the
whole body. A sense of the importance of the work was
realized by every one; but members were timid about
undertaking it. Where was the money to come from?
Two gentlemen of Louisville offered to contribute an
amount equal to any that synod would raise, up to $5,000.

r _

REV. W. D. MORTON.

In North Carolina. 75

The synod promptly accepted the offer, and $10,000 was
secured. A plan of operation was agreed upon, an execu-
tive committee was appointed, and the Rev. E. O. Guer-
rant and Rev. W. D. Morton were unanimously chosen as
synodical evangelists of the Synod of Kentucky."

Dr. Morton faithfully and successfully occupied this
position for three years, when he removed to Missouri.
He entered upon his work in North Carolina October 7,
1889, and retired from the work as evangelist October 11,
1891. During that time he held 1,291 services, witnessed
806 confessions, and saw 578 persons added to the Pres-
byterian Church. He has never ceased to be an influen-
tial factor in the great work of Synodical Missions, and
"his bow still abides in strength," and he enjoys the love
and esteem of the brethren and ministers to a devoted
people at Rocky Mount, N. C. The synod is under last-
ing obligations to him.

During the year 1891 seven churches were organized,
364 persons were added to the church, and the sum of
$13,540 was raised in cash and subscriptions for the work.
Of this amount $10,310 was raised by Dr. Smith within
seven weeks, and $1,700 was raised by Dr. Sprunt, chair-
man of the committee.

In March, 1892, the Rev. W. E. Mclllwaine resigned
as general evangelist, that he mig^ht accept the responsible
position of superintendent of Synodical Home Missions
in the Synod of Alabama. He served as general evange-
list in North Carolina most faithfully and successfully
for ten months, givmg most of his time to IMecklenburg
Presbytery.

In April, 1892, the Rev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D., re-
signed the office of superintendent, that he might accept
a pastorate in Charleston, S. C. Dr. Sprunt was promi-
nently connected with synodical missions in North Caro-

y6 The Presbyterian Church

lina for a number of years, having been the agent of
Evangehstic Labor, chairman of the committee, superin-
tendent and evangelist. He was an efficient officer, and
discharged all his duties with diligence and fidelity, and
his labors were abundant and successful.

Dr. Sprunt was the first superintendent of Synodical
Missions, and during his administration a great deal was
done toward rendering the w^ork permanent and self-sup-
porting. The work was carried on largely by an execu-
tive committee, appointed by the Synodical Committee,
and this committee held many meetings and wisely con-
ducted the work. It was composed of Rev. Dr. Sprunt
(superintendent), Rev. Dr. Smith, Rev. Dr. Hill, Rev.
Dr. Hoge and Mr. B. F. Hall.

On Dr. Sprunt's retiring from the work, the Rev. E.
W. Smith, D. D., was elected superintendent, and this
office was now made to include the work of financial
agent, and this latter office was ever afterwards discon-
tinued'.

Dr. Smith entered at once upon the combined duties of
his office, and at this time the force in the field had been
reduced to two men, giving their whole time to synodical
work, the Rev. Dr. Rose, general evangelist, and Rev.
R. P. Pell, district evangelist. But before the close of
the year (1892) three local evangelists. Rev. C. Miller,
Rev. W. C. Alexander, and Rev. M. McG. Shields, were
added to the force, and Dr. Smith reported $9,806 raised
by subscription for the work, and that the spirit of
liberality and activity seemed to be widespread and in-
creasing.

At the close of the year 1893, the beginning of the great
money panic, the committee said : '' The Divine blessing
has been doubly and even trebly manifest ; in the extraor-
dinary liberality with which individual churches have

In North Carolina. 'J']

continued to respond to this cause, in tlie uniform success
of the workers, and the special outpouring of God's Spirit
upon some of our great mission country fields, where,
until recently our church was unknown and in the cheer-
ing fact that notwithstanding the bitter financial strin-
gency of the times, your committee is able to report the
$i,ooo debt with which the year began paid off in full,
and all the workers paid up to date." This year 1,300
confessions were reported, 513 additions to the church,
and $18,033 raised in cash and subscriptions through this
agency for the work. During the year several new men,
as local evangelists, were placed in the field, among whom
were the Rev. Messrs. C. W. Maxwell, F. W. Parries
and William Black, and the reports from all the workers
were of the most cheering character. The reports from
Messrs. Pell in Mitchell and Watauga counties. Miller in
Stokes county, and Black in Union and Anson counties,
were almost thrilling.

The fruits of earnest labors were now beginning to be
gathered into an abundant harvest, but at this very time
the work encountered most serious difficulties and hin-
drances.

On April 15, 1893, the Rev. J. M. Rose, D. D., laid
down the work as general evangelist, after a faithful ser-
vice of about eighteen months, and at the same time
the Rev. Dr. Smith tendered his resignation as super-
intendent.

Dr. Rose was the immediate successor of Dr. Morton
as general evangelist, but the character of his work was
somewhat different. The greater part of his time was
spent in destitute regions, where there were scarcely any
Presbyterians, and where Presbyterian churches were
few, feeble and far apart. His work was the more diffi-
cult because it was almost entirely pioneer work, in ''the

78 The Presbyterian Church

highways and hedges," and often going under the special
directions of the superintendent, to remain only three or
four days at a place. He had no assistant to go before
him and prepare the way for a meeting, but every thing
depended upon himself. It was not until the latter part
of his time in the service that he held a few meetings in
the stronger churches, where his preaching was hailed
w^ith joy. Dr. Rose, under the circumstances, did a won-
derful work. He held 46 meetings and 619 services in
22 counties in three or four Presbyteries, witnessed about
200 confessions, and about 160 of \Vhom united with the
Presbyterian Church; organized one church and .four
Sunday-schools; baptized 43 adults and 21 infants, and
collected in cash and subscriptions more than $1,000 for
the work. By his clear-cut, logical, scriptural and able
presentation of the truth, made so plain and simple that
a child could understand, he was the very man in the
weaker fields, and w^here the people knew but little of the
Presbyterian Church, to "strengthen the things that re-
mained," and in the new^er fields to establish the people
''in the faith of the Gospel/' as well as to lead them to the
Saviour.

The synod declined to accept the resignation of Dr.
Smith as superintendent, which was offered chiefly on
account of a weak throat, but relieved him of all field
work, and empowered the committee to elect a superin-
tendent when the time and occasion seemed propitious.

The synod said : " In connection with the retirement
of Dr. E. W. Smith from active field work as superin-
tendent, the synod desires to place upon record its great
appreciation of the value of the movement with which
Dr. Smith has been so prominently associated, and their
appreciation of the labors of Mr. Smith, which have been
so self-denying and so exceptionally blessed. We feel that

In North Carolina. 79

both in the past usefulness and future promise, there has
rarely, if ever, been a movement of so much importance
to the Synod of North Carolina, and a work so benefitted
by the personal work of Rev. Mr. Smith, that only in
obedience to his fixed convictions of duty could the synod
as:ree to allow the work to be laid down. And, further,
that we most tenderly pray for a blessing upon the health
and continued usefulness of the loved brother mentioned
in this minute."

Dr. Smith continued in the work until February 15,
1894, when he was succeeded by the Rev. William Black,
who was elected superintendent by the committee January
15, 1894. Dr. Smith, however, for several years after-
wards, was retained on the General Committee, and con-
tinued to aid the cause by his personal influence and wise
counsel.

It would be impossible to estimate the value of the
labors of Dr. Smith in connection with Synodical Home
Missions in North Carolina. It is true this can be said
of other men with equal truth in the same connection,
but Dr. Smith did the work not only of an evangelist to
a considerable extent and with marked success, besides
the duties attending the office of superintendent, but his
great work lay in his marvellous ability and unprecedented
success in raising funds for the support of the cause.
The Lord seems to have especially guided the synod in
laying hands upon him as the one specially fitted for the
work — as the man for the time, and at a time when it was
sorely needed. It was no uncommon thing for Dr. Smith
to visit a church, habitually believing itself unable to sup-
port a pastor for all of his time, and, by his gentle man-
ners, persuasive speech and burning eloquence, raise at
least one thousand from that church for the support of
Synodical Home Missions !

8o The Presbyterian Church

The object was to place, or help to place, evangelists in
every county in the State, to get groups of churches in
the way of self-support, and to have the Presbyteries to
assume the support of the evangelists as soon as possible.
To this end thousands of dollars were raised by Dr. Smith
alone, not to speak of the considerable amounts raised
by others, and the people were stimulated by his presen-
tation of the cause to give liberally, and thus much land
was possessed and many souls were saved.

Dr. Smith was ordained as co-pastor of the Greensboro
Church, with his honored and venerable father, Rev.
Jacob Henry Smith, D. D., in October, 1886, and this
relation continued until he became pastor of the West-
minster Church in Greensboro, from which he was called
to the work of the synod in 1890. Early in 1894 he re-
turned to the co-pastorate with his father, which con-
tinued until the death of his father, in November, 1897.
He then had sole charge of the large First Chunch of
Greensboro, giving to it his untiring and successful labors,
until 1906, when he removed from the synod to Louisville,
Ky. He did a noble w^ork for the Synod of North Caro-
lina, a w^ork which attracted the attention of the whole
Southern Church, and which placed North Carolina in
the forefront as to Home Missions, and the synod will
never cease to owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Egbert W.
Smith.

But, notwithstanding the retirement of Dr. Rose and
Dr. Smith, and the stringency of the times owing to the
money panic, the work went steadily forward. New
fields were opened, new men were employed and the con-
tributions increased with the demands of the work. A
large number of evangelists were now employed by the
Presbyteries for a part or all of their time, and aided
in their support by the synod's funds. The synod had

In North Carolina. 8i

very few local or district evangelists whom it supported
entirely, but the object was to help the Presbyteries in
overtaking their destitutions by synodical means. The
success of the whole scheme depended largely upon the
labors of these evangelists, and they did, and are still
doing, a grand work, the results of which cannot be
tabulated or written in a book like this.

About this time, however, profound attention was
directed to the labors of at least three of these local evan-
gelists— Messrs, Miller, Pell and Black.

In Alay, 1892, the Rev. Cornelius Miller began his
work as synod's local evangelist in Stokes county. At
that time there was no Presbyterian church and no Pres-
byterians with which to form a church in the county. In
the long ago there were one or two feeble Presbyterian
organizations in this county, one at Sandy Ridge and one
at Snow Creek, but not a vestige of them now remained.
The first point at which Mr. Miller began to preach was
at a school house in the northwest part of the county, near
the residence of Mr. Robert W. George, one of the
wealthiest farmers and one of the most influential men
of the county, and at that time Mr. George was not a
professor of religion. In the summer of 1892, Mr.
Miller began operations to build a church at this point,
Mr. George subscribed liberally, and with some help from
the neighborhood and from kind friends in Winston and
elsewhere, the church was built, and on May 28, 1893, the
building was dedicated to the worship of God by the
Rev. D. I. Craig. A vast crowd was present, almost ex-
clusively of the Primitive Baptist "persuasion,'' the only
Presbyterians being present were the two preachers,
Messrs. IMiller and Craig, and an old gentleman by the
name of Hines, who was a wandering tailor stopping in
the neighborhood. In the following summer two young

82 The Presbyterian Church

men, Messrs. W. K. Forsyth and E. E. Gillespie, semi-
nary students, assisted Mr. Miller and organized a Sun-
day-school, with Mr. Gillespie as superintendent. This
was probably the first Sunday-school ever known or
conducted in that community. Miss Mamie McMillan
and Miss Eleanor Coble, who were teachers of the public
schools of the neighborhood, greatly assisted in the Sun-
day-school, and did missionary work. In July, 1893, the
Rev. William Black assisted Mr. Miller in a meeting, with
blessed results. Such a meeting had never been known
in that community. The first convert was Mr. Robert W.
George, and he was followed by many, in some cases
whole families coming together. In the following Octo-
ber Dan River Church was organized with 58 members.

In the winter of 1892, Dr. Rose assisted Mr. Miller
in a meeting at Danbury with blessed results. A church
building was immediately begun, and in 1894 Mr. Black
held a meeting there with Mr. Miller, and soon after-
wards the Danbury Church building was completed, and
the church was organized with 33 charter members.

In the summer of 1894 Mr. Miller held a meeting in
the woods, in the northwest corner of the county, assisted
by Mr. L. A. Coulter and Rev. A. S. Caldwell. Twenty-
nine persons were received into the Presbyterian Church,
but there was no building. Mr. George, heretofore re-
ferred to, proposed to the people on the ground that he
would pay one-half the cost of a church building if they
would raise the other half. The proposition was accepted,
and soon afterwards the Asbury Church building was
completed, and the church organized and dedicated.

In another region, inhabited largely by blockade dis-
tillers, Mr. Miller preached faithfully for a long time
under great difficulties and bitter opposition ; but finally
he organized a small church known as Snow Hill. He

In North Carolina. 83

was greatly assisted here by a noble young lady, Miss
Annie Query, who taught school and boarded right in the
midst of the blockaders.

In 1896 Orange Presbytery licensed and ordained, as
an extraordinary case, Mr. Robert W. George to labor as
a native evangelist in Stokes county and the surrounding
country.

For some time Mr. George had been practically preach-
ing, going from house to house and holding prayer
meetings, and telling the people what the Lord had done
for him. Very soon afterwards he built a church, which
was afterwards organized and known as Pine Ridge,
in the edge of Surry county, adjoining Stokes. He was
instrumental in building and organizing Pine Hall
Church, in Stokes county, and also Sandy Ridge Church,
in the same county, paying half of the cost of both build-
ings. Mr. George is a wonderful man — a wonderful
monument of God's grace, possessed of a strong mind
and body, a big heart and full of the Master's Spirit. He
has done, and is still doing a great work in his native
county.

Mr. Miller left the field in 1897, and was recalled to it
in 1899. I^ ^^'^^ mean time the churches were supplied
by Rev. S. S. Oliver and Rev. Robert W. George. After
Mr. Miller's return he strengthened the work he had
planted, and sowed good seed abundantly. He preached
in the highways and hedges, in school-houses, under
brush arbors, in the woods and everywhere. His name
and labors will never be forgotten in Stokes county. He
left the synod in 1903, but returned again, and at present
is a beloved minister of King's Mountain Presbytery, and
resides at Dallas, N. C.

A similar story, with perhaps more thrilling incidents
and along somewhat different lines, might be told of the

84 The Presbyterian Church

wonderful labors of Rev. R. P. Pell, in ]\Iitchell and
Watauga counties. The data is not in hand to give a
detailed account of ]\lr. Pell's work, but it was far more
than that of an evangelist. It lay along educational lines
as well as preaching the Gospel, and was far-reaching in
its results, and if the data were in hand, the story of the
beginning of the great educational work at Banner Elk,
in Watauga county and at Spruce Pine, Plum Tree and
Elk Park, in Mitchell county, would have to be told. The
story would require a whole chapter in itself, as one of
the great results of Synodical Home Missions.

Mr. Pell was ordained as an evangelist of Orange
Presbytery September 2, 1887, and he was a most faith-
ful and successful evangelist of Orange and Albemarle
Presbyteries until June, 1891, when he entered Mitchell
and Watauga counties as the district evangelist for the
synod. At that time there was no Presbyterian church
in Mitchell county, and only one small church in Watauga.
The following is a condensed summary of Mr. Pell's
work, given to the synod in 1894, viz. : "Churches in
charge, 4; mission points, 5; communicants, 162; Sabbath
schools, 4 ; pupils, 275 ; day schools, 3 ; pupils, 275, with
7 teachers ; regular prayer meetings, 3 ; seven elders and
four deacons ; buildings completed, 4, and i partly com-
pleted (and for the past year), 40 acres of land secured,
45 baptisms, 68 additions, and money collected for church
and school purposes, $787." Last year Mr. Pell had re-
f>orted that he had cultivated 10 points with considerable
regularity, and had collected $1,543; and the year before
he states the donation of 50 acres of land. He travelle 1
hundreds and hundreds of miles in his buggy and on
horseback over hills, mountains and dales, and held an
unknown number of services in sowing the good seed,
which are now bringing forth an abundant harvest. He

In North Carolina. 85

left the synod early in 1905, and at present is the honored
president of Converse College, at Spartanburg, S. C.

The Rev. William Black was licensed by Fayetteville
Presbytery January 17, 1893, and on the same day he was
transferred to Mecklenburg Presbytery, where he im-
mediately began his work as evangelist in Union and
Anson counties. He was ordained May 9, 1893, and the
report of his year's work to the synod of 1893 was as
follows: " Personally conducted 218 services and assisted
in 96 ; professed conversions, 757 ; additions to the Pres-
byterian Church, 102 ; churches built, 2 and i organized ;
Sunday-schools organized, 2 ; elders, 4, and deacons, 2
ordained ; baptisms, 79 adults and 2 infants."

The splendid reports of others who were engaged in
evangelistic work about this time, such men as Rev. M.
McG. Shields, Rev. W. C. Alexander, Rev. F. W. Par-
ries^ Rev. C. W. Robinson, and many others, might be
cited to show the progress of the work.

But enough ; the work went steadily forward in spite of
all difficulties and hindrances.

The year 1894 marks the beginning of the career of the
Rev. William Black in full connection with Synodical
Home Missions, which connection has continued uninter-
ruptedly until the present time, a period of more than
thirteen years.

As has been stated, Mr. Black was elected superin-
tendent to succeed the Rev. Dr. Smith January 15, 1894,
and he entered upon the full duties of superintendent, in-
cluding the work of general evangelist, on February 15.
1894. It was at a time when the whole country was be-
ginning to feel the depression in business on account of
the money panic, but at the end of the year the reports
showed marked progress along all lines. The sum of
about $23,000 had been raised in the synod for evangelis-

86 The Presbyterian Church

tic work, and all the workers had been paid without
incurring debt. There were now forty-six evangelists,
synodical and Presbyterial, at work in the synod, for the
whole or part of their time; and through these it was
reported that there had been 1,198 additions to the church,
and of this number 526 were reported by synodical
evangelists.

During the next two years the financial embarrassments
of the country were felt more keenly, and the contribu-
tions to the work suffered a slight decrease, while the
demands of the work increased. Consequently there was
a deficit ; but in spite of the deficit the work went steadily
forward. The policy of the Presbyteries and of the
churches had now become so fixed as to render the con-
duct of the work somewhat easier and more certain and
satisfactory. Yet it was felt that the combined work of
superintendent and general evangelist was too heavy a
burden to be borne by any one man, and ought to be
separated. For example, the reports of 1895 and 1896
showed that Mr. Black had held 45 meetings, had
preached more than 700 times, had added 728 persons
to the church, and had acted as secretary and treasurer,
which involved the writing and mailing of hundreds and
thousands of letters and circulars ; collecting and disburs-
ing all the funds, looking after the work of the whole
field, and raising money for its support. Consequently
the synod of 1896 recognizing the need of more active
prosecution of the financial side of the work, and not
wishing to draw more of the superintendent's time from
the evangelistic work, in which he had been so eminently
blessed, the synod authorized the committee to secure
the services of an assistant superintendent. But when
the committee met it relieved Mr. Black, the general
evangelist, of the entire responsibility of the conduct and

In North Carolina. 87

support of the work by electing the Rev. A. J. McKelway,
D. D., superintendent, to take charge of this part of the
work, and in order that Mr. Black might devote his entire
time to the work of general evangelist. The next synod
endorsed this action of the committee, and this plan has
been continued until the present time, and the Rev. Wil-
liam Black has been re-elected by the synod, usually by a
rising vote, from year to year, as the one general evan-
gelist of the Synod of North Carolina.

CHAPTER VII.

The Continued Progress, and Some of the Results,

OF Synodical Home Missions in North

Carolina, and the Men of the Times.

The Rev. A. J. McKehvay, D. D., was elected and
entered upon his work as superintendent in January,

1897. During a part of this year he gave only one-half
of his time to the work, the other half being given to
his pastorate in Fayetteville. He also, published for a
time a paper called " The Synodical Evangelist," which
was a source of much information and help to the cause.
During the administration of Dr. jMcKelway, which was
nearly two years, he attended the meetings of the Presby-
teries, visited a great many churches, and by personal
appeal secured, in cash and subscriptions several thous-
and dollars for the support of the work. As many as five
or six new counties were opened to Presbyterianism, and
as many new men were placed in the field. Dr. McKel-
way was a faithful and efficient superintendent, and under
his administration the work was aggressive; but about
this time he became manager and editor of the " North
Carolina Presbyterian," and the ever increasing demands
of the work required the whole time and energies of a
man to present the cause to the churches, from year to
year, and to keep the financial needs adequate to the
demands. Consequently, at the meeting of the Synod of

1898, Dr. McKelway resigned as superintendent, that he
might give his whole time to editorial work, having be-
come editor of the " North Carolina Presbyterian."

The responsibility of the work of the superintendent

In North Carolina. 89

devolved again for a short time upon the Rev. WilUam
Black, general evangelist.

In order to show the progress of the work about this
time, and especially the increasing demand for all of the
time and energies of a superintendent, it is only neces-
sary to revert to one of the results of Home Missions
in the year 1896. It was the formation of Asheville Pres-
bytery, set off from Alecklenburg, on November 12, 1896.
This Presbytery is composed of 11 counties, 19 churches,
10 ministers and 1,000 communicants. The territory lies
west of the Blue Ridge, and embraces the counties of
Buncombe, Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Haywood, Hender-
son, Jackson, Macon, Madison, Transylvania and Swain.
This Presbytery was almost entirely missionary ground
and greatly increased the duties of the superintendent. In
1896 there was no Presbyterian church in four of these
counties, and there were not more than 150 communi-
cants all told in about four of the other counties com-
bined. At the present time every county has been entered,
and there are 25 churches with more than 1,700 communi-
cants, and nearly $22,000 in aggregate is raised in the
Presbytery. There have been great transformations in
that part of the country within the last ten or twelve years,
and whatever of good has resulted in this region from
Presbyterianism through evangelistic efforts, a large
share of that good is due to the earnest missionary spirit
and great liberality of the First Presbyterian Church of
Asheville, under the able leadership of its beloved pastor,
the Rev. R. F. Campbell, D. D. And in conjunction with
this church, due credit should be given for the success
achieved to the Rev. R. P. Smith and the Rev. E. Mac-
Davis.

The Rev. R. P. Smith became a member of the synod
and pastor of the Gastonia Church in 1893, and from that

90 The Presbyterian Church

day until the present time he has been identified with
evangeHstic work. After a most succe.ssful work as pastor
of the Gastonia Church he became the general evangelist
for Mecklenburg Presbyter}-, and he labored in some of
these counties before the Asheville Presbytery was
formed. After the formation of the Presbytery, he be-
came its general evangelist until 1904, when the synod
called him to the office of superintendent of Synodical
Home ^Missions. For more than eight years }vlr. Smith
was evangelist of this Presbytery, and during that time,
as a brother minister has said, ''he was eyes, ears, hands
and feet to the Presbytery's Home Mission Committee."
He travelled through the valleys and over the mountains
in all sorts of conveyances, on horseback and mule-back,
with or without saddle, and often on foot. He preached
to the people in churches, school houses and groves, by
the wayside and from house to house. He planned most
of the buildings erected, purchased the material, and
superintended the work from start to finish. He organized
churches and schools, fostered them with his personal
care, and found preachers and teachers to take charge of
them. Thus he was not only "all things to all men," but
well-nigh ''^all men to all things." Mr. Smith is a man of
lovable disposition and temperament, and has a great
fondness for children, and he has never failed to find an
oi>en door to the homes of the people, with whom he has
labored and with whom he is exceedmgly popular. He is
a faithful and earnest preacher, his manner showing that
he believes what he preaches, and much of the success
that has marked the mission work in Western North
Carolina has been due to the wisdom, energy and conse-
cration of Rev. Robert P. Smith.

The Rev. E. Mac. Davis was the pioneer evangelist
of Madison county, beginning his labors in the summer

REV. R. p. SMITH.

In North Carolina. 91

of 1897 and continuing until 1904. In the brief reports
to synod of his work we learn that he preached at about
thirty-eight points, distributed thousands of tracts and
books, and travelled thousands of miles. He organized
three or four churches and a large number of Sunday-
schools and mission summer day schools. He secured
for teachers and as helpers in his Sunday-school work
from time to time during his sojourn of about six years,
andi usually without cost to the committee, the following
persons, viz. : Misses Margaret Allison, Elizabeth Tucker,
Elizabeth and Fanny McPhearson, Janie Vaughan, Bessie
Black, Urbie Myrover, Kathrene Jarrell, Ethie Vickery,
Lula Barnett, Miss Ferguson, Miss Rea, Anna McDon-
ald, and Mr. T. G. Rogers. Misses Allison, Black and
McDonald were with him, perhaps, longer than some of
the others, but a great and grand work was done by all
of these noble, self-sacrificing. women. Mr. Davis was a
man of strong convictions of truth and righteousness, and
was absolutely fearless. He had many conflicts with the
illicit distillers and whiskey interests in this county, and
at times his personal safety was threatened, but in 190 1
he won a great victory in his field by his valiant labors,
resulting in the passage of a prohibition law covering
three counties. We cannot estimate the value of this
faithful soldier's service for the Master in that section.
The churches he has left behind him, with a membership
of perhaps 200 are his memorial. He did a fine work,
and the people will not soon forget his zeal and energy
and noble efforts for the cause of God and humanity.

After the resignation of Dr. A. J. McKelway as super-
intendent, in October, 1898, the Rev. William Black,
general evangelist, acted as superintendent the remainder
of the year, and in January, 1899, the committee, In its
wisdom, selected for the ofiice of superintendent the Rev.

92 The Presbyterian Church

E. E. Gillespie, a young man of splendid attainments,
and an evangelist of Orange Presbytery, who entered
upon his work as superintendent January i6, 1899. Mr.
Gillespie continued in this position, filling the office of
superintendent with great acceptance, ability and success,
until the end of the year 1904, a period of six years,
within which time great things were done for the ad-
vancement of the Kingdom of Christ.

It will be remembered that the first permanent Commit-
tee on Synodical Home Missions was constituted at Char-
lotte in 1889, and the first report of that committee was
made at Wilmington in 1890. At that time the report
showed that the synod was composed of six Presbyteries,
including Albemarle, which had just been formed, 127
ministers, 275 churches and 26,189 communicants. The
report also showed that the following 2^ counties had no
Presbyterian church within their borders, viz. : Alleghany,
Ashe, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Cherokee, Chowan,
Currituck, Dare, Gates, Graham, Greene, Hertford, Hyde,
Jackson, ]Madison, Martin, Mitchell, Northampton, Pam-
lico, Perquimans, Person, Pitt, Stokes, Tyrrell, Wash-
ington and Yancey; and 19 other counties had but one
Presbyterian church each, making 46 counties either
wholly or almost destitute of Presbyterianism. The re-
port, moreover, showed that the aggregate funds raised in
the synod for all causes and reported to the Assembly
amounted to $194,385.00, and that there were not more
than twelve ministers engaged for a part or the whole of
their time in evangelistic work.

In 1900, after a lapse of ten years, the reports show that
there were 7 Presbyteries, 160 ministers, 377 churches,
34,634 communicants ; only 17 vacant counties, 23 Presby-
terial evangelists. 14 ministers, not including the super-
intendent and general evangelist, and a large number of

In North Carolina. 93

male and female teachers, doing evangelistic work, and
that the aggregate amount of funds collected for all
causes and reported to the Assembly was $220,946.00.

Thus it will be seen by this comparison that at the end
of ten years there was a decided advance along all lines
in overtaking the destitutions.

The names of the ministers employed under the direc-
tion, of the Synodical Committee for a part or the whole
of their time, and at some time during the past ten years
are as follows :

Superintendents — Rev. Alexander Sprunt, Rev. E. W.
Smith, Rev. William Black, Rev. A. J. McKelway and
Rev. E. E. Gillespie.

General Evangelists — Rev. W. D. Morton, Rev. E. W.
Smith, Rev. W. E. Mcllwaine, Rev. John ]M. Rose and
Rev. William Black.

District or Local Evangelists — Revs. Messrs. C. W.
Maxwell, J. C. McMullen, R. P. Pell, F. H. Johnston, C.
Miller, M. McG. Shields, W. C. Alexander, C. W. Robin-
son, F. D. Farris, D. J. Currie, Jonas Barclay, B. Souher,
John Wakefield, L. A. McLaurin, Edgar Tufts, L. E.
Bostian, A. K. Pool, J. E. Balou, E. Mac. Davis, John
Grey, P. C. Morton, James Thomas, F. D. Thomas, C. N.
Wharton, E. D. Brown, W. T. Walker, W. M. Shaw, J.
E. L. Winecoff, E. P. Bradley and Allen Jones, Jr.

There were also a number of Presbyterial evangelists
in no wise connected with the Synodical Committee, and
all of these brethren labored faithfully and efficiently, and
were the instruments in God's hands in disseminating the
truth in preaching the pure Gospel, in building and or-
ganizing churches, in the conversion of thousands of souls,
and in strengthening the faith and comforting the hearts
of tens of thousands of God's people. It is impossible
to estimate or reduce to figures the good results of the

94 The Presbyterian Church

labors of these men during these ten years. God only
knows. There were also a number of teachers, mostly
ladies, of mission schools, whose names are not at hand,
who did a noble work and rendered great assistance to
the Home Mission cause.

Of the above named ministers, at least four of them,
the Rev. F. H. Johnston, D. D., the Rev. Paul C. Morton,
the Rev. E. Mac. Davis, and the Rev. A. K. Pool, have
gone to their blessed reward, and have joined scores and
scores of those who heard them preach and sing the
story of redeeming love while on earth.

The Rev. Dr. Johnston and the Rev. Mr. Morton be-
longed to that class of ministers who had labored faith-
fully and long before the origin of synodical missions.
Dr. Johnston was the son of a missionary, and was born
in Constantinople August 8, 1834. He spent the first six.-
teen years of his life in the far-off land of Asia Minor.
He came to North Carolina, the native land of his fathers,
in 1 85 1, and was educated at Davidson College. For
thirty-three years he was a beloved and successful pastor,
iirst at Lexington and afterwards at Winston, N. C. He
was the honored stated clerk of old Orange Presbytery
for twelve years, and was elected general evangelist be-
fore the formation of Albemarle, and in 1890 he was
residing within its bounds. He continued in the evan-
gelistic work until his death, November 14, 1901.

Dr. Johnston was the recipient of many honors, and the
depository of many trusts from the church. He was a
scholarly man, and his judgment was clear and con-
clusive. He was one of the central figures in the great
Synodical Movement, and gave to it his hearty support,
and his successful evangelistic labors were wrought in
Albemarle Presbytery. He was a profound and edifying
preacher, gentle and retiring in his disposition and man-

REN/. F. H- JOHNSTON, D. D.

In North Carolina. 95

ners, but brave and courageous in defense of the truth.
He was as modest as a pure woman, and a most agreeable
and pleasant companion with his old and tried friends
and with those who knew him best —

'' None knew him but to love him ;
None named him but to praise."

The Rev. Mr. Morton came to the Synod of North
Carolina in 1895, and until his death, in 1902, he did gen-
eral evangelistic work, especially within the bounds of
Wilmington Presbytery. He was a brave soldier chaplain
of the Civil War, and many incidents are related of his re-
markable bravery and fearlessness. " He was a good
man, full of the Holy Ghost and faith, and he lived in an
atmosphere of prayer." After his death it was said of him
by one who knew him well : " His character was golden,
his life was simple, his zeal was abounding, his love deep,
his faith unfaltering, his spiritual being high and lifted
up, through the power of Divine grace."

The Rev. E. Mac. Davis, after retiring from the Avork
in Madison county, accepted work in the Synod of
Georgia, and soon afterwards his health failed and the
Lord called him to his reward.

The Rev. A. K. Pool was a young man of sweet dispo-
sition and lovely spirit, and for about three years of his
life he was an ordained minister, an evangelist of Concord
Presbytery, and the synod's assistant to the Rev. Mr.
Black, the general evangelist. The churches of Forest
Hill, McKinnon and Patterson Mills, in Concord Presby-
tery, are largely the fruits of his labors. He had to give
up the work of preaching the Gospel on account of failing
health, and for more than a year before his death he was
continuously with Mr. Black in his meetings, and devoted
his whole time to singing the Gospel, which he did with

96 The Presbyterian Church

great power and unction. He was the assistant director
of the music at the Biblical Institute held at Red Springs
in 1892, and he had entire control of the music of the
institute held there and at Gastonia in 1893.

'* Mr. Pool had rare gifts as a singer, possessing, as he
did, not only a thorough knowledge of music, but one of
the sweetest voices ever heard in the State. He rendered
much valuable aid to Mr. Black in the meetings which
were held, and Mr. Black speaks of a number of instances
in which he believes men were saved through his singing,
upon whom the preaching seemed to have but little effect.
Mr. Pool was engaged in one of these meetings when he
was taken sick, and from which sickness he never rallied,
but died as it were in the harness, August 7, 1899,
in the thirty-fourth year of his age, among the peo-
ple where he had been laboring last. The last piece
he sang in one of these meetings was '' Saved by Grace,"
which he did not only with rare sweetness, but with great
ejffect upon the audience. There are at the present time
four Presbyterian churches within a radius of about four
miles of the place of his death — Democrat, N. C. — and at
that time there were none at all. Of course all of this is
not due to him, but much of it is, as perhaps nowhere else
did his singing make a greater impression than among
those plain but appreciative mountaineers. In the synod's
obituary of him it is said : " The sweet singer of the
Synod of North Carolina is heard here no more, but he
still sings the praises of redeeming love, with a harp in
his hands and a crown on his head, where there is no
more sickness and no more death."

The Rev. E. E. Gillespie occupied the position of super-
intendent from the beginning of the year 1899 to the end
of the year 1904, a period of six years, and during that
time the work of Synodical Missions went steadily and

REV. A. K- POOL.

In North Carolina. 97

increasingly forward, and prospered to a very high
degree. The superintendent, the general evangelist and
the committee went hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder
to the great work to which God had so manifestly called
them. A great deal was accomplished for the Master's
kingdom.

In 1899 Mr. Gillespie found a debt of $4,843 resting
upon the work. This debt was cancelled the first year,
and there was a steady enlargement of the work each
year during the time of his service. He received and
collected in cash for the support of the work during his
administration the sum of nearly $55,000. He visited
most of the churches in the synod and held more than a
thousand services. Many of these services were pro-
tracted, wherein he witnessed the conversion of many
precious souls, and saw a large number added to the
church.

Mr. Gillespie was specially fitted for the work, a man
of commanding personal appearance, attractive in his
manners, full of zeal and energy, and possessing great
executive ability. God greatly blessed him in the work.
During his administration, the following additional min-
isters were employed by the committee and placed in the
field for the whole or a part of their time: Rev. Messrs.
D. Munroe, J. S. Smith, J. H. Jarvis, E. Garrow, W. A.
Murray, J. A. Harris, L. E. Wells, J. C. Story, R. M.
Mann, J. P. Hall, A. H. Temple, P. C. Irwin, I. N. Clegg,
H. Garrow, H. H. Cassady, S. C. Smith, R. L. Grier, C.
W. McDonald, F. G. Hartman, R. H. Orr, L. W. Curtis,
F. E. Ghigo, J. C. Hardin, and W. T. D. Moss, besides a
large number of male and female teachers. It was also
during his administration, October 23, 1902, that the Pres-
bytery of "King's Mountain'' was formed.

This Presbytery, the second daughter of Mecklenburg,

98 The Presbyterian Church

was another result of Synodical Home Missions. The
first meeting was held at Lincolnton, N. C, November
18, 1902, and the Rev. R. A. Miller preached the opening
sermon.

On the retirement of Mr. Gillespie, at the close of the
year 1904, and in order to take a special course of study
and to eventually become a pastor, the synod adopted the
following resolution :

*' Resolved^ That the Synod of North Carolina would
record its profound gratitude to our gracious God for the
noble work that he has enabled our retiring superintend-
ent, Rev. E. E. Gillespie, to do for our mission field during
the past six years, and that it would express to Brother
Gillespie its cordial appreciation of his zealous, faithfal
and efficient labors for Home Missions, and that it would
invoke upon him and his efforts the same Divine blessing
in any field to which he may be called, that has manifestly
rested upon his endeavors within our bounds."

Mr. Gillespie, at present, is a member of the Synod of
South Carolina, and the beloved pastor of the Yorkville
Presbyterian Church.

It has already been stated that the synod, at Durham,
N. C, November 17, 1904, elected the Rev. R. P. Smith
superintendent of Synodical Home Missions as the worthy
successor of Rev. Mr. Gillespie, and the time that has
elapsed since has proven that the synod made no mistake
in that election. Mr. Smith came to the Synod of North
Carolina in 1893, as stated elsewhere in these pages, and
from that date to the present time has proven himself to
be a faithful pastor, an earnest and successful evangelist,
and a wise and efficient superintendent.

Mr. Smith is a man of fine attainments, possessing a
winning disposition and cordial manners, a big heart full
of love to God and man, and manifesting a zeal, energy

In North Carolina. 99

and devotion which are untiring for the cause of the
Master. The conduct of the synod's great mission work
is safe in his hands.

His report as superintendent of the synod's work for
the year 1905 shows that 25 ministers had been preach-
ing the Word in destitute places ; that 22 volunteer teach-
ers had been teaching more than 1,000 children, and that
507 communicants had been added to the church. His
report for the year 1906 shows that 27 ministers had
served 71 small churches and 70 mission points; that 5
churches and 30 Sabbath-schools had been organized in
new territory; that 708 persons had been added to the
church, and that the sum of $9,558 had been raised for
the work. His report for the year 1907 has not yet been
made, but we may justly believe that it is even more
encouraging, showing the onward march of the great
work of Synodical Home Missions in North Carolin.i.

In all this onward march and progress of missions
through the past seventeen or eighteen years there has
been one agency contributing largely to the success of the
movement, which ought not to be overlooked or lightly
estimated, and that agency has been the wisdom, faithful-
ness, self-denial and the sound judgment of the men who
have composed the synod's Home Mission Committee, not
including the officers of that committee.

According to the plan which was practically adopted in
1881, and which was perfected in 1889, the chairman of
the Home Mission Committee of each Presbytery, during
his tenure of office, and one ruling elder from each Pres-
bytery, elected annually by the synod, should constitute
this committee. The original committee, thus constituted
at Charlotte, N. C, in 1889, was composed of the follow-
ing persons : Rev. D. I. Craig, Rev. C. A. Munroe, Rev.
H. G. Kill, D. D., Rev. P. H. Hoge, D. D., Rev. W. E.

TOO The Presbyterian Church

Mcllhvainc, D. D., and Rev. W. D. Morton upon the
organization of Albemarle Presbytery ; and Ruling Elders
Gen. A. M. Scales, I. H. Foust, Dr. J. W. McNeill, B. F.
Hall, General Rufus Barringer and Samuel Watkins.

The changes in this committee since that time have
been as follows: The Rev. Mr. Craig was succeeded by
the Rev. M. McG. Shields in 1894; Mr. Shields was suc-
ceeded by Rev. R. W. Culbertson in 1898; Mr. Culbert-
son was succeeded by Rev. E. C. I^Iurray, D. D., in 1901 ;
Dr. Murray was succeeded by Rev. D. C. Lilly in 1904;
Dr. Lilly was succeeded by Rev. C. F. Rankin in 1905,
and Mr. Rankin was succeeded by Rev. S. M. Rankin in
1906.

The Rev. C. A. Munroe has never ceased to be a
member of the committee until the present time, except
for one year, 1902, when he was succeeded by Rev. W. I.
Matthews, 1889.

The Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D., has never ceased to be a
member of the committee — 1889- 1907.

The Rev. Dr. Hoge w^as succeeded by the Rev. A. D.
McClure, D. D., in 1899.

The Rev. Dr. Mclllwaine w^as succeeded by Rev. T. A.
Wharton, D. D., in 1892; Dr. Wharton was succeeded by
Rev. R. A. Miller in 1894; Mr. Miller was succeeded by
Rev. J. R. Howerton, D. D., in 1899; Dr. Howerton was
succeeded by Rev. G. T. Thompson in 1900; Mr. Thomp-
son w^as succeeded by Rev. T. J. Allison in 1903 ; Mr.
Allison was succeeded by Rev. P. H. Gwynn in 1904, and
Mr. Gwynn was succeeded by Rev. George H. Atkinson
in 1906.

Dr. W. D. Morton was succeeded by Rev. J. B. Morton
in 1897, and Mr. Morton was succeeded by Rev. W. D.
Morton, D. D., in 1900.

The Rev. R. F. Campbell, D. D., became a member on

In North Carolina. ioi

the organization of Asheville Presbytery in 1896, and has
never ceased to be a member of the committee — 1896.

The Rev. W. R. Minter became a member of the com-
mittee in 1902, on the organization of King's Alountain
Presbytery, and has continued a member until the present
time — 1907.

The changes among the ruHng elders have been as fol-
lows :

General A. M. Scales was succeeded by Islv. ]. M.
Rogers in 1891.

Mr. I. H. Foust was succeeded by Air. J. G. Hall in
1890.

Dr. J. W. [McNeill has never ceased to be a member of
the committee — 1889.

Mr. B. F. Hall has never ceased to be a member of the
committee — 1889.

General Barringer was succeeded by Mr. John E. Gates
in 1890; Mr. Gates was succeeded by Mr. D. W. Gates
in 1892; Mr. Gates was succeeded by Mr. C. E. Graham
in 1894; Mr. Graham was succeeded by Mr. A. G. Breni-
zer in 1896, and Mr. Brenizer was succeeded by Mr. H.
M. Belk in 1905.

Mr. Watkins was succeeded by J\lr. J. R. Young in
1891, and Mr. Young was succeeded by Mr. C. M. Brown
in 1906.

Mr. Blair, who became a member in 1896, was suc-
ceeded by Major Robert Bingham in 1901, and Major
Bingham was succeeded by Mr. E. E. Quinlan in 1905.

Dr. C. E. Adams became a member in 1903, and was
succeeded by Mr. A. M. Smyre in 1905.

Thus it may be seen that the present committee is com-
posed of the following members: Rev. S. M. Rankin,
Rev. C. A. Munroe, Rev. H. G. Hill, D. D., Rev. A. D.
McClure, D. D., Rev. G. H. Atkinson, Rev. A. D. Mor-

102 The Presbyterian Church

ton, D. D., Rev. R. F. Campbell, D. D., Rev. W. R.
Minter, and Messrs. J. iM. Rogers, J. G. Hall, Dr. J. W.
McNeill, B. F. Hall, H. M. Belk, C. M. Brown, E. E.
Quinlan and A. M. Smyre.

It is worthy of note that of these persons the Rev. Dr.
Hill, Rev. C.A. :\lunroe, Dr. J. W. McNeill and Mr. B.

F. Hall were members of the original committee, and
that all of them except Mr. Munroe, for one year, have
served continuously on the committee until the present
time; and also Messrs. J. G. Hall and J. M. Rogers have
served for nearly the whole time of the committee's exist-
ence.

The synod owes a debt of gratitude to all the members
of this committee for their faithful and efficient service,
but the story of Synodical Missions as told in this book
would not be complete without something more than the
mere mention of the names of those who have served so
long, especially of that great and good man, the Rev. H.

G. Hill, D. D.

Perhaps no man has ever served the church in North
Carolina who has been more abundant in labors or who
has been the recipient of more important trusts from the
church than Dr. Hill. He began his ministerial career
during the Civil War as a chaplain in the army. Before
he completed his course of study in the Union Theological
Seminary in Virginia he was licensed to preach by Orange
Presbytery, when he entered the army as chaplain of the
Thirteenth North Carolina Regiment, commanded by Col-
onel A. M. Scales. In 1862 he was with the army around
Richmond and in the famous Maryland campaign. In
1863 he returned to the Seminary for a time, and in the
winter oi that year he was sent again to the Army of
Northern A'irginia as a missionary by Orange Presbytery.
In the meantime, at intervals, he served the churches of

REV. H- G. HiLL, D. D.

In North Carolina. 103

Hillsboro and Griers, in Caswell county, and taught in
the school of the Misses Nash and Kollock in Hillsboro.
On his return from the army in 1865 he became pastor
of the Hillsboro Church. In 1867 he removed to Oxford,
where he became pastor of the church and principal of
the Seminary there, and the supply of Grassy Creek
Church, and while here he started the erection of a
church at Henderson. In 1868 he removed to Fayette-
ville, N. C, where he was pastor, and doing extensive
pastoral and presbyterial work in the whole surrounding
country for eighteen years. In 1886 he removed to Max-
ton, and became pastor of the Maxton and Centre
churches, which position he still holds, and in which he
has been wonderfully blessed.

Dr. Hill has given to the church a wonderful example
of the possibilities and powers of a missionary pastor. He
has always been keenly alive to the missionary and educa-
tional interests of the church around him, as well as at
large, and his wisdom and influence along these lines
have been very great in the S}Tiod of North Carolina.
From the very inception of the Synodical '' Movement "
in North Carolina, Dr. Hill has been a conspicuous figure,
an ardent advocate, a wise counsellor, a powerful debater,
an eloquent speaker, and a faithful laborer for the great
cause; and to him, perhaps as much, if not more than to
any living man, is due the honor and the praise of the
origin and success of Synodical ^lissions in North Caro-
lina. Dr. Hill has been honored by the church, and by
strict attention to her calls and the faithful performance
of the duties imposed, he has proven himself to be worthy
of the honor. He has been made Moderator of her Pres-
byteries, of the Synod of North Carolina, and of her
highest court, the General Assembly ; he has made many
public addresses by the appointment of the church, and

I04 The Presbyterian Church

has served on many of her important committees, and at
the present time he is a director of Union Theological
Seminary in \"irginia and the president of the Board of
Regents of the Synod's Orphan's Home. He has been
chairman of the Home Mission Committee of Fayetteville
Presbytery for thirty-five years, and a member of the
Synodical Home Mission Committee since the inception
of the work. He is a recognized able preacher of the
Gospel of wide reputation, and enjoys the love and esteem
of a devoted people in his pastorate, and is a "brother
beloved" by all the members of the Synod of North Caro-
lina.

The Rev. C. A. Munroe was licensed to preach by
Fayetteville Presbytery in 1876, but was ordained in
Mississippi, where he labored for six years. He returned
to North Carolina and served as evangelist of Concord
Presbytery for two years. He removed to West Virginia,
where he labored for four years, and then returned to
North Carolina and became pastor of the Hickory and
Lenoir churches in 1888. In 1891 he became the chair-
man of the Home Missions Committee of Concord Pres-
bytery, in connection with the Lenoir Church, and at the
present time he is the general evangelist of the Presbytery
and chairman of the Home Mission Committee. Since
1 89 1 he has been one of the most active, aggressive, use-
ful and successful Home Mission men in the synod, and
no man has been more faithful in his work or in co-opera-
tion with the work of the synod's committee. The good
results of Mr. Munroe's labors have been abundant, espe-
cially in Concord Presbytery.

Dr. J. W. McNeill, the '' beloved physician," of Cum-
berland county, and Air. B. F. Hall, the " beloved elder"
and wholesale commission merchant of Wilmington, N.
C, members of the original committee, and Mr. J. G. Hall,

REV. C. A- MUNROE

MR. B. p. Hall.

In North Carolina. 105

manager of the Realty and Insurance Company at Lenoir,
N. C, and Mr. J. M. Rogers, wholesale hardware mer-
chant at Winston, N. C, have all seen the rise and pro-
gress of Synodical ■ Missions from the beginning, and
through their wise counsel and faithful efforts as mem-
bers of the committee, the work has been greatly strength-
ened and advanced. These men and many other members
of the committee, both the church and the State have de-
lighted to honor.

Dr. McNeill was appointed by the General Assembly
of 1895 on the Committee to represent the Southern Pres-
byterian Church in the Pan-Presbyterian Council, which
met in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1886, and he has served as
a senator from his county in the State Legislature, ren-
dering most valuable service as a member of that body.

Mr. B. F. Hall has been in close touch with the interests
of Presbyterianism for many years, and by his wise coun-
sel, godly example, and generous gifts he has been a tower
of strength to the church, especially in Eastern North
Carolina. He was elected by the Synod of North Caro-
lina a director of LTnion Theological Seminary in Virginia
in 1884. and he still holds that honorable position.

Mr. J. G. Hall is a well-known business-man and influ-
ential elder in the western part of the State. He takes a
deep interest in public affairs, and as a public speaker
and a leader of men he exerts a wide influence for the
upbuilding and welfare of both the church and the State.

Mr. J. M. Rogers is a son of a minister, and knows the
needs of a minister, and he, together with other members
of the Winston church, has done a great deal for the
pioneer ministers of Stokes county, and for the synodical
work in that county and surrounding country. Mr.
Rogers has been a faithful and punctual attendant upon
the meetings of the committees, and his advice and coun-
sel are always valuable.

io6 The PRESJiVTEKiAN Church

The limits of this book will not permit us to speak at
length of the noble labors of other members of this com-
mittee, some of whom have pa.^sed away, such men as
General Scales, General Barringer, the Oates ; Messrs.
Graham and Young, Major Bingham, the Rev. Mr.
Shields, Rev. Dr. Alurray, the Rankins and the grand
work and godly life and influence of the Rev. Dr.
McClure. In the Rev. A. D. ^^IcClure, D. D., the synod
has found a most worthy successor to Dr. Hoge, as chair-
man of Home Missions for Wilmington Presbytery and
ex officio a member of the Synodical Committee. He
has not only kept going the large missionary enterprises
which had been set on foot in his Presbytery prior to
his election, but has reached out into other fields and made
a most useful member of the synod's committee. Under
his wise direction the synod has been enabled to assist
in doing a great 'work in Brunswick, Columbus and
Duplin counties, a most important work for every reason,
and especially now that this section of the State is making
such rapid progress in the wonderful success of its truck-
ing interests, and many persons are moving into the coun-
try, who could be and were reached by our church, and
many of them have been added to its membership.

We might speak, also, if it were possible, of a great
number of noble men who were never members of the
committee, but who have been prominent promoters and
helpers of the great cause of Home Missions — such men
as B. G. Worth, George Allen, S. P. Alexander, J. M.
Mclver, George W. Watts, P. B. Fetzer, J. F. Love, J. D.
Murphy and many others. But in closing this history of
the development of the church and especially of the rise
and progress of Synodical Missions in North Carolina it
seems but right and proper to speak somewhat at length
and in particular of the life and labors of the Rev. Wil-

In North Carolina. 107

Ham Black, general evangelist, who is also a member of
the Synodical Committee.

The Rev. Mr. Black has been prominently connected
with Synodical Missions since January, 1893, and for the
greater part of the time since then he has been the cen-
tral figure in the evangelistic field, to which all eyes have
been turned, and he is perhaps more widely known to-day
than any other Presbyterian minister in North Carolina.
It would be impossible for any biographer or historian
to place upon record that which would convey an
adequate conception of the vast and far-reaching influence
for God and for the uplifting of humanity which this one
man has exerted. If the Synodical Movement launched
at Goldsboro in 1888 had accomplished nothing more
than to put Mr. Black in the field, it would have proved
a great success, and a w^ise investment for all the cost of
missions until the present time. It would be hard for
any one who has a proper conception of the facts to be-
lieve that God did not specially raise up and set apart this
brother to accomplish the special work which he has been
enabled to do.

Mr. Black was born of Scotch parents near Maxton, N.
C, and was educated with the view of making the study
and practice of law his life work. He studied law under
** Dick and Dillard," of Greensboro, N. C, and was duly
licensed and began the practice of law in 1881. He
rapidly arose in the profession, and at the end of ten or
twelve years he became what the world calls a successful
lawyer, doing a paying business and enjoyinsf a large
and lucrative practice. But God intended him to teach
men the Divine law, and in 1893 he yielded himself to the
unceasing demands of his Lord and of his conscience, and
on Jan. i, 1893, he was licensed to preach the Gospel by
Fayetteville Presbytery, and during the same year he was

io8 The Presbyterian Church

ordained by Mecklenburg Presbytery and immediately
employed by the Presbytery and the Synod ical Commit-
tee as a local evangelist for Union and Anson counties.
He remained in this field just one year, and the Lord
crowned his labors with wonderful success, giving him
the joy of witnessing more than 700 conversions, and of
seeing more than 100 communicants added to the Presby-
terian church.

On January 16, 1894, he was elected superintendent of
Synodical Home ]\lissions, which at that time included
the office and the work of general evangelist, and in Jan-
uary, 1897, he began to give his whole time to evangelistic
work, and except for a short interval in 1898, when he
was again superintendent, he has continued until the
present moment to give his whole time to the work of
general evangelist for the synod. And in the mean time
he has conducted several successful meetings in other
States, with blessed results ; and, moreover, Mr. Black
was the originator of the idea of Biblical institutes, so
many of which have been held in this State, he having
offered the resolution that provided for the first one, held
at Red Springs, N. C, over which he presided, and a simi-
lar one held at Gastonia in 1893. He was also assisted by
the splendid serviced of the Rev. E. E. Gillespie, also re-
sponsible for the origin, conduct and magnificent success
of the Evangelistic and Biblical Institute held at Davidson
College in 1902. These institutes, besides helping the
thousands who attended' them to a better understanding of
the Bible on every phase of Christian work, especially
emphasized the missionary and evangelistic opportunities
and responsibilities.

During Mr. Black's connection with Synodical Home
Missions in North Carolina, a period of fourteen years,
the tabulated] reports of his labors as given from year to

REV. E. E. GILLESPIE.

In North Carolina. 109

year will give some idea of the magnitude of these labors.
The following figures may not be accurate, but at the
present time (1907), they are in no wise exaggerated:
He has held more than 4,000 services, and on an average
in about twenty counties a year. He has witnessed the
confession of several thousand persons, and more than
4,000 of these have joined the Presbyterian Church, while
many of the others have joined churches of other denomi-
nations. He has organized a dozen or more Presbjterian
churches, and as many Sunday-schools, and he has
ordained quite a number of elders and deacons, besides
baptizing adults and infants, and receiving from hun-
dreds of heads of families the pledge or promise to hold
family worship. He has travelled thousands of miles, has
made many addresses, held many prayer meetings, and
has done a vast amount of office work ; and wherever he
has gone he has been hailed with delight and welcomed
with joy.

The great success of Mr. Black has been due in a large
measure to his kind and gentle manners, his simple and
candid cordiality, and his intense earnestness in present-
ing the truth. His style of preaching reminds one that
he has never lost many of the characteristics of the skilled
lawyer presenting his case before a jury. His message is
pointed, direct and earnest, speaking rapidly and yet ten-
derly, producing in the minds and hearts of his hearers
the feeling that his message is one of love combined with
authority. Moreover, Mr. Black knows men, and how to
adapt himself to the peculiarities and needs of men,
having had abundant opportunity in the practice of law
as well as in preaching the Gospel to study all classes and
shades of humanity. He is a most congenial companion
and a ''brother beloved" with his close friends, and with
all who know him well, and upon him the entire Synod of
North Carolina invoked its loving benediction.

no The Presbyterian Church

'* His bow still abides in strength, and the arms of his
hands are made strong by the hands of the mighty God of
Jacob/' who has honored him and blessed him and given
him many stars for his crown.

The great work which the Rev. William Black has
done, he feels, is in a large measure due to the assistance
of his singers, not only to Rev. A. K. Pool, who sang so
sweetly till his death in 1899, but to Mr. Andrew Burr,
his present helper, and many have no doubt been sung
into the kingdom by these sweet singers, who might not
otherwise have been reached.

Mr. Burr is a native of Chatham, New Brunswick,
Canada, and was elected a ruling elder in the St. Andrews
Church in his city. He has been with Mr. Black, manag-
ing the singing, since January, 1904, and is not only a
sweet singer, but knows how to make the song service a
power for good, not only in arousing Christians, but in
reaching the unsaved also. From such services of song,
as rendered by such men, it is clearly seen that it is a
great power that many do not use, but they also show
us how to use this force, after their visits to our churches
are over.

MR. ANDREW BURR.

CHAPTER VIII.

A Brief Summary of Some of the Results of Synodi-
CAL Home Missions in North Carolina.

Many of the great enterprises and advanced move-
ments in tlie church of the present day may not be at-
tributed as direct results to the great Synodical Move-
ment^ but at the same time the vigorous prosecution of
Synodical Missions opened the way, increased the interest
and gave an impetus to all the great causes of the church,
and made some of these enterprises possible. All of the
great causes of the church, in a very great degree, have
kept pace in the onward march with Home Missions.
This is especially true along educational lines. Wherever
a pioneer evangelist was sent a mission day school in
connection w^th the work was established, and from some
of these day schools splendid institutions of learning have
had their origin.

The Rev. J. B. Shearer, D. D., the great apostle of
Church and Christian Education in North Carolina, began
with the Synodical Movement in 1889 to urge the neces-
sity of Biblical training in all Presbyterian schools, so as
to make an intelligent scriptural faith the controlling prin-
ciple of our schools. In 1890 a Synodical Committee on
Church and Christian Education was appointed, and frorfi
that day until the present time Dr. Shearer has faithfully
and efficiently preached and toiled for the great cause, and
his labors have not been in vain. The policy, plan and
constitution of church schools as promulgated and ex-
p>ounded by Dr. Shearer gradually found favor through-

112 The Presbyterian Church

out the church, and under the guidance of his wisdom was
finally adopted by the General Assembly as the policy and
plan of the whole Southern Presbyterian Church. This
great cause has now assumed vast proportions, and its in-
fluence for building up Christ's Kingdom is simply enor-
mous.

In connection with Church and Christian Education,
and we may say as a result of the Home Mission Move-
ment, a strong effort was inaugurated in 1900 to raise
within five years the magnificent sum of $300,000 as a
twentieth century fund for the cause of Christian educa-
tion. The synod entered heartily into the movement, and
appointed as a supervisory committee the Rev. R. E.
Caldwell, Rev. A. R. Shaw and Mr. J. M. Mclver, to act
conjointly with the Rev. J. W. Stagg, D. D., and Mr.
George W. Watts, the Assembly's committee.

In 1901 the synod called the Rev. Dr. Stagg as field
secretary, to raise the money, and appointed a special
committee, consisting of Rev. E. W. Smith, D. D., Rev.
J. M. Rose, D. D., Rev. J. M. Wells, D. D., and Ruling
Elders George W. Watts and J. M. Rogers, to act in
conjunction with the Supervisory Committee and conduct
the work. In 1902 the synod appointed an executive com-
mittee, to take the place of the Supervisory Committee
and to act in connection with the Presbyterial committees,
consisting of Rev. E. W. Smith, D. D., Rev. E. C. Mur-
ray, D. D., Rev. E. R. Leyburn, and Elders E. P. Whar-
ton and J. M. Mclver. This committee had charge of the
conduct of the work until its close, and the report in 1906
showed that the sum of $113,789 had been raised for the
cause of education.

In 1889, immediately after the inauguration of Synod-
ical Home Missions, the synod's Orphan's Home was
established. The founding of this institution was one of

In North Carolina. 113

th€ most important steps ever taken by the Synod of
North Carohna. It resuUed in a glorious success, to the
honor of God and to the lasting good of the church and
to humanity. The Rev. Jethro Rumple, D. D., was chair-
man of the commission, appointed in 1888, to formulate
plans for the establishment and conduct of the Home, and
the plans submitted by him were adopted, and a Board of
Regents were appointed to have the management of the
Home.

The original Board of Regents consisted of the follow-
ing persons: Rev. J. Rumple, D. D. (president), Rev. W.
E. Mclllwaine, Rev. D. I. Craig, Rev. D. D. McBryde,
Hon. A. M. Scales, Hon. D. G. Fowle, George E. Wilson,
Esq., George Chadbourn, Esq., Mr. John E. Oates and
Mr. G. M. Love.

A detailed account or minute history of the inaugura-
tion of this Home, first at Charlotte and afterwards at
Barium Springs ; of the many perplexing problems and
difficulties solved and overcome by Dr. Rumple, the
Board and the superintendent. Rev. R. W. Boyd, of the
marvellous providences of God, and the wonderful success
of the institution, and last, but not least, of the laborious
work, the patient thought and tender care of Dr. Rumple
in his long connection with the Home, would read like
a thrilling romance if it were written. For fifteen years
the management of this institution was the burden of the
great heart of Dr. Rumple, and to this work he gave his
best thought, his wise counsel and noble eiforts, and its
success was the joy of the closing years of his life. The
Home has never had but one superintendent, the Rev. R.
W. Boyd, who is honored and beloved by the synod and
the 150 orphan children under his care. Through the
long years of his service he has proven himself to be the
right man in the right place. The Home as it now stands

114 The Presbyterian Church

is comprised of nine main buildings on 250 acres of land,
and the whole property is worth more than $50,000.

Among the liberal donors to the Home and after whom
some of the buildings are named, the names of George W.
Watts, Mrs. S. P. Lees, Mr. S. P. Alexander, Mr. J. C.
Burroughs, Judge Howard, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Carson
and others will never cease to be gratefully remembered.

Schools Under Church Control.

At the head of the list stands Davidson College, which
has always been owned and controlled by Presbyteries
and synods, and which can by no means be classed as a
result of the Synodical Home Mission Movement, and yet
it has been greatly strengthened, helped and encouraged
by the movement; and the same may be said of Peace
Institute, at Raleigh, which is owned by Presbyterians,
if it is not under the direct control of the church.

The Charlotte and Statesville Female Colleges and the
Southern Presbyterian College and Conservatory of
Music at Red Springs, N. C. ; all three of them, as dis-
tinctive church schools, were founded in 1896, and are
owned and controlled by the Presbyteries in whose
bounds they are located. These three female colleges can
scarcely be surpassed in their equipment for furnishing
a thorough education on such terms that it may be in
reach of all. Any attempt here to write the history of
each of these schools or to advertise their merits would
be inadequate.

The history, however, of the origin of the College at
Red Springs was in connection with an effort on the part
of Fayetteville Presbytery to reopen the old Floral Col-
lege as a high school for girls. Only a portion of the
necessary amount of money could be raised, and in the
spring of 1895 the Presbytery invited other points or

REV. S. M. RANKIN.

In North Carolina. 115

places in the Presbytery to submit bids for the location
of the school.

On August 15, 1895, the Rev. S. M. Rankin, who at
that time was pastor of the Red Springs Church, called a
mass meeting of the citizens of the place to consider the
matter, and about fifteen men assembled, and one man
offered to give $100 as a beginning, and Mr. Rankin was
instructed to prosecute a canvass for the location of the
school at Red Springs.

At the next meeting of Presbytery, September 17, 1895,
the bid from Red Springs, amounting to four acres of
land, twenty-five hundred dollars in cash or material and
one-sixth interest in certain fair ground property, was
accepted by the Presbytery, and the Committee on Church
and Christian Education was authorized to select the site
and to canvass the churches for additional funds.

In October, 1895, the site offered by Dr. J. L. McMillan
was selected as the location, and the Rev. Mr. Rankin was
appointed to canvass the churches of Presbytery.

In March, 1896, Mr. Rankin reported $5,000 raised,
and also submitted plans and specifications for the first
building, which were accepted, and Mr. Rankin was
elected chairman and treasurer of the Building Commit-
tee. A Board of Trustees was appointed, and in June,
1896, the Rev. C. G. Vardell was elected to take charge
of the school. The school opened September 30, 1896,
with an enrollment, during the year, of 112. Under the
splendid management of Dr. Vardell the institution has
steadily advanced to the forefront of female colleges
in the South, and the plant has been enlarged until the
property is now worth at least $100,000. At the present
time (1907) there is a faculty of twenty-five or thirty
teachers and an enrollment of more than 300 young lady
students.

ii6 The Presbyterian Church

The " Lees-McRae Institute" — the girls' department at
Banner Elk, in Watauga county, N. C, and the boys'
department at Plum Tree, in Mitchell county, N. C. — is
one of the direct results or products of Synodical Home
Missions.

The pioneer evangelist in these counties was the Rev.
R. P. Pell, who did much in laying the foundation for
schools and in fostering the desire among the people for
more and higher education. Mr. Pell was succeeded in
1895 by Messrs. Edgar Tufts, L. E. Bostian and E. D.
Brown, in Watauga county, and Mr. L. A. McLaurin, in
Mitchell county. These brethren had not yet completed
their seminary course, and they did splendid work during
the summer months in this field.

In 1897 the Rev. Edgar Tufts took charge of the field,
and to him is due the splendid success and wonderful
progress of the institution at Banner Elk, over which he
still presides.

In 1901 the Rev. J. P. Hall became associated with the
institution, and through his splendid labors the boys' de-
partment has been transferred, built up and established
at Plum Tree, in Mitchell county. Mr. Hall has charge
of this department.

The following brief outline of the origin and history of
the institution is here given in the language of the Rev.
Edgar Tufts:

"This school had its beginning in a small summer mis-
sion school taught by two ladies for four months, with
no guaranteed salary except their expenses. The next
step was when the evangelist in charge of the field gath-
ered around an open fire in his own room a handful of the
largest and most advanced pupils and taught them free of
charge for several months during the winter of 1898. The
next step was the following fall, when the matter of build-

In North Carolina. 117

ing a high school at Banner Elk was taken up at a mid-
week prayer meeting and subscriptions received to the
extent of some $250 in lumber and work.

'The enterprise having thus been started at home, many
appeals through papers, through letters and in person
wer€ made for help with which to finish the buildings.
After months of hard work, during which a debt was
never made, the dormitory and a two-room academy
building were ready for use.

'The school was first known as the ''Elizabeth iMcRae
Institute," in honor of Mrs. E. A. ]\IcRae. The name was
afterwards changed to the Lees-McRae Institute, in honor
of Mrs. S. P. Lees. These ladies were liberal helpers and
doners in the founding of the institute

'The first session of the boarding department was be-
gun in the fall of 1900 with about a dozen girls in the
dormitory and two teachers. At the close of the second
year it was evident that more class room would have to be
provided for. A new academy was started at once. This
building was begun like the dormitory,, with a subscrip-
tion at home.

"From time to time a few acres of land were added,
sometimes as donations and sometimes by purchase, until
to-day the school owns forty-seven acres, through which
the turbulent water of the Elk river flow. Not only does
this stream afford picturesque scenery and delightful trout
fishing, but it has in its bosom a magnificent water-power,
which some day will doubtless be used to light the school
with electricity.

"From the very beginning the Bible has been a daily
text-book for every pupil in the school. The industrial
features have also been emphasized and enlarged until
to-day this course embraces cooking, sewing and basketry.
The catechisms of the Presbyterian Church have also been

tt8 The Presbyterian Church

so constantly brought to the attention of the students that
over one hundred girls have been awarded Bibles and Tes-
taments for reciting them. The Christian influence has
been such that over thirty students have united with the
church while in school.

In 1903 two important changes were made: One of
them was the change in the time of the sessions, so that
the school now begins in the spring and closes at Christ-
mas. The object in this change was first to eliminate the
three severe winter months, and thereby reduce the run-
ning expenses, and, second, to breakdown as far as possi-
ble, by running the school in the summer, the too frequent
custom in the mountains of putting the girls on the farm
as soon as they are large enough to handle a hoe. The
other change was moving the boys' department to Plum
Tree in the adjoining county.

"The enrollment in these two departments during 1906
was upwards of 275 students, five of whom are already
candidates for the ministry."

The great success and splendid work of Rev. Edgar
Tufts with the Lees-McRae Institute has been made pos-
sible by the self-sacrificing and painstaking work of Mrs.
E. A. MacRae, of Maxton, N. C. This lady was a mem-
ber of Centre Church, near Maxton, and at her own cost
and charges, without one cent of reimbursement, taught
several months during the first years of our work in
Watauga county when Rev. R. P. Pell was there; and
just after he left, and by her lovely Christian life, her
love for souls, and her devotion to her Master, won the
hearts of those splendid, but rather poor people, of that
section, gave them a taste and love for better things, and
thus, in her modest way, laid the foundations for the
splendid schools which have since received from her and
others, under the excellent management of Rev. Mr.
Tufts, the money to carry them on and build them up.

In North Carolina. 119

There are a large number of other excellent schools
which are the direct results of Synodical Missions, but a
history of their origin cannot be given here. In nearly
every instance, however, these schools originated through
the self-sacrificing labors of some godly woman in teach-
ing a day mission school under the direction of the com-
mittee or some evangelist.

There is the "J^^^s Sprunt Institute" at Kenansville,
N. C, named in honor and memory of the late Rev.
James M. Sprunt, D. D., and founded by Mr. Henry
Farrior and Dr. James W. Blount and others, in 1896,
which is a Female School under the direct control of
Wilmington Presbytery. It has been a wonderful suc-
cess, and is a strong arm for mission work in eastern
North Carolina. It has at present more than one hundred
pupils, and more than half of them are boarders. Mr.
J. O. Carr, of Wilmington, N. C, is the President of the
Board of Trustees, and for a time the Rev. R. V. Lancas-
ter had charge of the school. The present principal is
Miss Blanche Boyd, formerly a teacher, matron and
editor of the Synod's Orphans' Home at Barium Springs,
North Carolina.

The splendid '^Westminster School'' at Brittain, N. C,
established largely through the efforts of the Rev. R. C.
Morrison, and under the fine management of Rev. W. R.
Minter, in the providence of God," has educated many
poor boys and girls and fitted them for usefulness in life,
and is a missionary agency of great power and influence
in King's Mountain Presbytery.

The school at Canton under the management of Rev.
J. C. Hardin, and the schools at Crabtree, Dillsboro, Rob-
binsville, Barnardsville, Hughes and other places in the
western part of the State.

The Elise High School at Hemp, the Englewood

I20 The Presbyterian Church

School at Albemarle, the Stanly Hall School, and the
Clarkton High School, besides a great number of mis-
sion schools of lower grade. These schools are educating
scores and hundreds of girls and boys all over the State,
and their influence is immense and far-reaching for the
glory of God and the uplifting of humanity.

In 1888 the Rev. Dr. Rumple presented a paper to
synod on 'Tarochial Schools," urging the churches, when-
ever practicable, to establish parochial schools for pri-
mary and classical instruction under their own super-
vision, and at the same time the Rev. Dr. Mclllwain sub-
mitted the annual report on education. In these papers
not a single mission school is mentioned or reported, and
while Peace Institute, the Charlotte, Statesville and Floral
colleges are mentioned as Presbyterian schools, Davidson
College is the only school mentioned as being under direct
church control.

At the present time (1907), after a lapse of nineteen
years, the great number of schools and colleges now in
operation and under church control will show how great
have been the results and the progress along educational
lines.

In 1888 there were five Presbyteries, 122 ministers, 262
churches and 22,553 communicants in the synod. In 1907
there are eight Presbyteries, 179 ministers, 423 churches,
and 39,788 communicants.

In 1888 the aggregate amount of funds raised in the
synod was $144,692, and in 1907 the amount was more
than $344,913.

In 1888, according to the reports given by the stated
clerks of the Presbyteries, there were thirty-one counties
in the State without a single Presbyterian church, and
fifteen counties with one church in each, making a total
of forty-six counties practically without Presbyterianism
within their borders.

In North Carolina. 121

There is a confusion in the numbers given of the va-
cant counties, from time to time, and this confusion arises
from the fact that in some of the counties given "with
one church each/' there was only a church building and
not an organization ; and besides, it is not easy to ascer-
tain the exact time of the organization of some of the
new churches. There were really more than thirty-one
counties without a Presbyterian organization in 1888, and
it is not claimed that the Synodical Movement has done
all the organizing and aggressive mission work since
then, but it has done much of it, and has stimulated Pres-
byteries and individuals to activity, which have brought
about the great changes since the Movement began. As
nearly as can be ascertained, when the Synodical Mission
work was begun, there were no organized Presbyterian
churches in the following counties, viz. : Alleghany, Ashe,
Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Clay, Cherokee,
Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Graham, Greene, Hyde,
Hertford, Jackson, Johnston, Jones, Madison, Martin,
Mitchell, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Perquimans,
Person, Pitt, Polk, Stokes, Swain, Tyrrell, Watauga,
Washington, Yadkin, and Yancey, making a total of thir-
ty-six. In the counties of Halifax, Lenoir, Pasquotank,
and Stanly, the single organizations were new and ex-
ceedingly weak, and in about thirteen other counties
there was but one church only in each, making a sum
total of about fifty-three.

Since 1888, to the beginning of 1907, there have been
reported to the Synod the organization of 187 new
churches in the State. There are now (1907) eight Pres-
byteries, 186 ministers, 428 churches, and 40,750 com-
municants.

The counties without a Presbvterian church within the

122 The Presbyterian Church

State at the present time are thirteen in mimber, and are
as follows: Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare,
Gates, Greene, Hertford, Northampton, Pamlico, Per-
quimans, Tyrrell and Washington.

In 1888 there were six Presbyterial evangelists within
the bounds of the synod giving their whole time to the
work, while there were perhaps as many more ministers
giving a part of their time to evangelistic work. In 1907,
according to the last reports from the Presbyteries, there
were 21 evangelists at work in the Presbyteries, and the
superintendent of Synodical Missions reported 27 minis-
ters as having served regularly 71 small churches and 70
mission points; 1,389 persons made a public profession of
faith during the year, and 708 of these joined the Pres-
byterian church." In addition to these ministers, there is
a great host of laymen and teachers, male and female,
w^ho are engaged in evangelistic work, especially during
the summer months, teaching and preaching the Gospel
throughout the State.

In 1888 Biblical institutes, mission conferences and
Bible teachers' training schools and associations of various
kinds for spreading the Gospel were unknown in North
Carolina; but at the present time they are of common
occurrence and wdthin the reach of all.

We cannot claim that all these facts and conditions as
we have them to-day are the direct results of Synodical
Home Missions, inaugurated in 1888, but many of them
are, and in after years it will be seen more clearly than
now that the great "movement" at that time w^as more far-
reaching and of infinitely more importance than those
who participated in it ever dreamed. And there will be
no backward step. The watchword is Onward ! Higher,
and yet higher! Towards the great possibilities which
God has set before the church for his own glory in the
salvation of men !

In North Carolina. 123

The promise to Joshua and the children of Israel was
'' Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon,
that have I given thee," and every student of Bible history
knows that not anything like all of this land was ever
taken by the children of Israel, and why ? Simply because
God put the condition in, that their feet should tread upon
it — that is, take possession of it, and that could not be
done without a contest, a fight strong and in some cases
long continued; this the children of Israel did not have
faith to undertake.

The same principle holds to-day. The different denom-
inations have done much in possessing the land for Christ,
as has been seen from a perusal of these pages, the Pres-
byterian church in North Carolina has done a good part,
but we cannot fail to be impressed with how little we
have done in comparison with what we ought to have done
and what we could easily have done. Such reflections
are sad, but instead of becoming discouraged thereby, we
should be determined to put forth more and better directed
efforts to overtake the destitutions in our own land and
reach out to other lands, too. Let no one imagine that
the work is done, that we can rest on our oars, for in the
great State of North Carolina there are now (1907) still
counties in which we have no Presbyterian church, and
there are still several counties in which we have only one
church. Besides all this, it is estimated that there are
600,000 white persons over the age of ten years within
this State that do not belong to any church, that make
no profession of Christianity, and when you add to this
the large number of professors who are probably still un-
converted and the still larger number of colored people
who are out of Christ, it will be seen at once that there is
much land still to be possessed.

When we think of this vast army marching down the

124 The Presbyterian Church

rough pathway of time to eternity's shore and who have
not made Jesus their friend, and take into account our
boasted and real wealth, our splendid opportunities for
carrying and sending the Gospel to them, and especially
when we consider that these are not only men and women
with souls, but are our own kith and kin, we stand amazed
and appalled at the spectacle and wonder how we can be
so apathetical and take things so easy, but let us not stand
by and do nothing, but go ourselves and send others
before it is too late. It is too late to reach the thousands
who died without Christ, it is too late to possess some of
the land for our church, the former opportunities are gone
and the latter have in many cases been taken by our sister
churches while we stood by and offered resolutions, re-
viewed minutes, tried cases, appointed committees and
such like. It is now time to awaken and to work. There
are splendid opportunities still offering, and doors still
open. Do we not hear the Lord saying, "Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us?" Let us answer, '' Here am
I ; send me." L^nless this call is heard, there is another
message with which we are much concerned, and that is :
" Son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house
of Israel. Hear the word at my mouth and give them
warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou
shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning ....
the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his
blood will I require at thy hand."
God is calling yet; shall we not go?

REV. JAMES I. VaSCE, D. D.

EVANGELISTIC AND MISSIONARY
ADDRESSES,

Rev. JAMES I. VANCE, D. D.,
Rev. WILBUR CHAPMAN, D. D.
Rev. S. L. MORRIS, D. D.,
Rev. WILLIAM BLACK.

FOREWORD.

History is written, not only that we may be made ac-
quainted with the facts, but that, knowing them, we should
be able to make some practical use of them, such for ex-
ample as imitating the noble examples, avoiding the mis-
takes, and of correcting in ourselves what has been seen
defective in others.

Trusting that the study of the history contained in this
volume may have been thus beneficial to you, and with
a desire to assist you in making application of these facts,
this brief volume of addresses is added.

This fact, that the Presbyterian church has been slow
to use the evangelistic arm of the church, is made clear as
we have gone over the record of its work for more than
one hundred years. It is clear that our denomination has
suffered from this neglect, and equally clear that, where-
ever and whenever this important work has been faith-
fully done, there has been a wonderful blessing attending.

In the Bible, God says : "And he gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists and some pas-
tors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ." Yet, notwithstanding this plain teaching, that
evangelists are God-given agencies, our church has not
only made very little use of the same, but has looked upon
the evangelistic office as a sort of secondary one, and the
work done by evangelists as superficial and questionable,
and the man undertaking to exercise the gift, as a sort
of self-appointed agency, whereas in truth, the evange-
list has equal divine authority with apostles, prophets
and pastors.

128 The Presbyterian Church

In the failure of the Presbyterian church to make full
use of this most important office, in our use of the pas-
toral office almost to the exclusion of other agencies, is
one explanation of its comparatively small numbers com-
pared with two other churches in our State. Not only
so, but in failing to use the evangelistic office together
with all other helps, much desirable territory has been
taken possession of by other denominations, and our
church thereby practically excluded, souls have gone into
eternity from whole counties, without hearing one word
about Christ and His blessed salvation, fro]n our church.

Perhaps the greatest loss to our church is the evangel-
istic and missionary spirit and the great reflex benefit
that always comes to the faithful church in doing evange-
listic and mission work. Shall we not azvake, and arise
and go and do this great work?

These addresses are, therefore, sent forth, with the
earnest hope that every one who reads them may be filled
with a holy enthusiasm for the salvation of souls, may
be able to see the importance of keeping a large supply of
evangelists always in the field, not only in foreign, but
in our own lands, and above all, that every pastor and
every member may see that, filled with this missionary
spirit, there are splendid opportunities for doing this
work, in every community, and seeing the opportunities,
seize them and use them at once. Every pastor can and
should be both a pastor and an evangelist, and an evan-
gelistic pastor will be sure to make members with the
true evangelistic and mission spirit throbbing within their
hearts.

Use every gift, ministers, elders, deacons, Sunday-
school teachers, private members, all have them. Make
your life count, your money, your musical talent, your
life, your all. Use it for the Master, now.

IF MY COUNTRY WERE HEATHEN.

By Rev. James I. Vance, D. D.

In the opening chapter of his letter to the Church at
Rome, the greatest of missionaries says: ''I am debtor."

He announces his obHgations, he proclaims his liabili-
ties, he declares his indebtedness, he tells us what he owes.
He is heavily embarrassed. But it is not the fact of debt
that distresses him. He is not worried for fear he may
be unable to meet his obligations. It is anxiety lest
somehow he may shirk payment that stirs him. Having
announced the fact that he is in debt, he names his credi-
tors. "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Bar-
barians." How can he owe these people anything? He
has never had any financial transactions with them. They
do not know him, and he does not know them. They
have never heard of him, and he can refer to them only
by their nationality. To people with whom he has had
no business dealings and no commercial correspondence
and not the remotest personal contact, Paul says, 'T am
debtor."

Having named his creditors, he tells how he proposes
to meet his obligations. "So as much as in me is, I am
ready to preach the gospel." Paul proposes to pay his
debts by preaching the gospel. It is a strange method of
debt-paying. It is rather an airy way of facing one's
creditors. It is somewhat emotional. It is altogether
too sentimental a plan of cancelling indebtedness. "Paul,
you would better get down to a cash basis." Paul, how-
ever, has full confidence in the currency he proposes to
ase. He is not afraid that it will go to protest. He has

130 The Presbyterian Church

no fear that it will be rejected or even questioned. He
says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth."

Stranger than the list of creditors and stranger than
the proposed method of payment, is the ground of obliga-
tion. Paul is in debt because he has been blessed. We
regard debt as the sequence of disaster or as the result Df
limitation. Paul has incurred debt by riches receive.!.
He is a debtor to preach the gospel because he has re-
ceived the gospel. He owes Christ to others because hi
has Christ himself. He must not be selfish. What Christ
is to him, he can and would be to every human life.
Paul has no right to sit still and enjoy the blessings of
redemption, while others are in need of that which he
can give.

This is a brand new kind of obligation. It is an un-
heard of sort of debt. It is the Christian view of privi-
lege. It is this conception of obligation that makes the
Christian church a missionary church.

The Church is Missionary or Nothing.

Every Christian is a debtor. He is involved. Having
announced, in the opening chapter of this his greatest
epistle, the fact that he is in debt, Paul proceeds in the
following chapters to discuss the great doctrines of Chris-
tianitv — atonement, justification, adoption, sanctification,
election, assurance — until in the eighth chapter he is
ready for a great conclusion. What do these doctrines
amount to? This: 'Therefore we are debtors." Then
he continues the discussion until in the fifteenth chapter of
the epistle he is making the practical application of doc-
trine to duty and says: 'Their debtors they are."

In North Carolina. 131

The Christian's debt is fact, argument, conchision, ap-
pHcation, all.

And it is not the fact of debt that should distress him,
nor the fear that he may be unable to meet his obliga-
tions that should worry him, but anxiety lest he may
somehow shirk his responsibilities that should stir him.

The Christian is debtor to people he has never seen.
They do not know him and he does not know them. They
have never heard of him and he can refer to them only
by their nationality. His creditors are Greeks and Bar-
barians^ people of culture and people without culture,
people of China, of India, of Africa, of the islands of the
sea, all people of any land who have never heard the gos-
pel and who do not know of Christ.

The only way the Christian can pay his debt is with
the gospel. He need not be afraid that it will be re-
jected. It is what the world most needs. It is the cur-
rency with which God meets his obligations to mankind ;
and if the mighty God could cancel his debt to the human
race with the gospel, surely it will pay mine to my fellow
man. If it was sufficient to make eternal payment of the
liabilities of Jehovah, I need not fear it will go to protest
when offered in payment of my obligations.

My debt was contracted in the same way as Paul's.
I am a Christian. Some one or many made it possible
for me to hear the gospel. It was not because I deserved
it. I had done nothing to merit such a favor. It is all
of grace. I do not know why I was born in a Christian
instead of a pagan or heathen land. I do not know why I
was born in a Christian home, with parents who belonged
to the church and whose first care was that I should know
and love their Saviour. You do not know why that
little daughter whom you love better than your life was
not born in India, where ?he might have been a child-

132 The Presbyterian Church

widow at the tender age of twelve years; or in China,
where the birth of a daughter is regarded as a calamity.
But somehow I know him, whom to know aright is life
eternal. I have a Christian's view of God and man and
the world and home and country and heaven, and because
I have, I am debtor. Shame on me, if in such a day of
grace, I close tightly- onf what I have received, and
doubling down in stolid selfishness, repudiate my debts !

Ours is a Christian Country.

Because it is, it is a good country in which to live.
The fact that it is Christian, helps to make it a profitable
country in which to do business. Because it is Christian,
it is a good country in which to bring up children, ro
have friends, to own property, to follow a trade, to prac-
tice a profession. It is far from being perfect, to be sure.
There is much that might be better. But the bad is not
because of the land's Christianity. It is in spite of it.
America has social and civic blemishes because it is not
as Christian as it might be. It is the Christianity it has
that makes it a land wlTere personal liberty is guaranteed,
human life held in high esteem, childhood protected,
womanhood respected, home honored, wifehood and
motherhood reverenced, and things that are true and
beautiful and good celebrated and sought.

Suppose this were not a Christian country. We are so
accustomed to it that we are wont to take our Chris-
tianity as a matter of course. Suppose this were a heathen
country. All countries are not Christian. There are
heathen countries in the world. What if America were
one of these heathen countries? What changes would
take place?

I have never been in a heathen land. I have been in

In North Carolina. 133

some American cities, where Christianity was at low ebb,
and where the seething tide of wanton vice and immoraU-
ty reigned. I have been through certain neglected sec-
tions of great American cities where the sodden wretched-
ness of human misery rotted in damps of sin whose ig-
norance bordered on the night of heathenism. But I have
never been in a city where heathenism reigned. I cannot
answer the question as well as some missionary who has
seen a heathen city ; and seen it not as the passing tourist
who sees only its strange shows and curious sights, but
who has gone down into its awful decay and breathed its
moral stench and come into living contact with its blank,
black despair. While I cannot answer the question as
well as such a missionary, I can at least give a partial
answer, and name some of the things that must go with
the loss of our Christianity.

If Ours were a Heathen Country.

The first to go would be the churches. We should have
to tear down every Christian church and close every
Sunday-school and wipe out every mission. We should
have to raze the Young Men's Christian Associations.
It would stop the mouth of every preacher and abolish
Sunday as a day of worship and as a day of rest. This
is the first and most evident change to take place. The
churches and all that they stand for must go. This is not
all.

We must close the public schools. There are no public
schools like ours in a heathen land. One of our mis-
sionary agencies is the day school. The public schools
are not free of faults. It is an easy achievement to criti-
cize them, but they are vastly better than the conditions
they supplanted, and they are immeasurably better than

134 The Presbyterian Church

no scliools. The preacher who declared the public schools
are turning out a generation of "lusty young pagans,"
said what very few believe and what the facts do not
warrant. The public school system is an indirect product
of Christianity. We should lose it if ours were a heathen
land.

Then the hospitals would go. They do not exist in
heathen lands, save as they have been introduced by Chris-
tianity. The hospital is one of the missionary enterprises
of the church. In India, Dr. Scudder in charge of a
hospital to which thousands come to be healed, is doing
three men's work. If this were a heathen country, we
should have to close our hospitals for cripples, for chil-
dren, for the sick poor, for the homeless sick, for con-
tagious diseases, and for the manifold diseases and ills to
which flesh is heir. We must give up the medical pro-
fession as we have it now. Then if a man should fall on
the streets, there would be no ambulance to carry him
and no cot to receive him. Should your child fall ill,
there would be no physician to come with intelligent skill
and healing remedies to the little sufferer ; but instead a
creature, with wild incantations, to add plague and tor-
ture to the already sickness of the body.

Next to go would be the orphan asylums and homes
for the aged and friendless, and institutions for the care
of defectives anH afflicted. We should have to tear down
the homes for the insane, where those who have lost their
reason find a refuge. All of the aged and helpless people
and the defenceless children must be turned out in the
storm and left on the streets should ours become a heathen
land.

The next to go would be our organized charities, for
there is no organized charity in a heathen city. We should
have to relinquish the Bureaus of Associated Charities

In North Carolina. 135

with their sane and unselfish work ; the charitable socie-
ties with their splendid beneficence; the industrial homes
and the rescue missions, where the man out of work and
the prisoner fresh from serving his sentence may find
a helping hand ; the Florence Crittenton Homes, where
the sinning and outcast may step through a door of hope ;
and all those other agencies by which the needy and the
worthless are lifted to self-help and set on the road to
industry and respectability.

If ours were a heathen land^ we should lose the city
governments under which we live. It is frequentlv the
ground of just complaint because of existing abuses, but
compared with what passes for government in a heathen
city, it is as day to dark. We denounce the system of
"graft" which obtains to a greater or less extent in many
American cities, but the ''graft" we groan over is a virtue
compared with the shameless extortions and brazen in-
justices practiced by the heathen officials of a Chinese
city. Civilization with its free institutions, its sense of
justice, its respect for law and order is the outcome of
Christianity. With an oriental miscalled court of justice
and its reign of terror instead of wdiat we have, property
values would tumble, trade would suffer irreparable loss
and conditions of living would become far harder.

This is not all that would happen, were America to be-
come heathen. There are invisible values, more precious
even than those I have mentioned, we should lose. It
would take from us our immortal hope and faith in
Christ, our Christian experience with all its peace and
fortitude. If America were heathen, we should be
heathen !

Recently 1 was shown two photographs. The first was
of a man suffering from club foot ! He was terribly de-
formed and badly crippled. His deformity was a handi-

136 The Presbyterian Church

cap that made existence hard and work difficult. The
second was of the same man, taken three months later,
after he had been healed by a Christian surgeon. The
deformity was gone. The man stood square and flat-
footed on two good feet, and was ready to measure equal
with his fellows in the race of life.

That kind of relief is a great boon, and that is a part
of the work of missions. Christianity has a gospel for
the body. But there is a blessing infinitely more precious.
It also takes the deformity out of the soul. It was spir-
itual as well as physical hurts the prophet had in mind
when he proclaimed the blessings of the gospel age and
cried, ''Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the
tongue of the dumb shall sing."

All this would go, were ours a heathen country. You
could not say, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not
want." You could not pray, "Our Father, which art in
heaven." You could not teach the children, "God so
loved the world, as to give his only begotton Son."

There is one thing more that would happen should
America become heathen. We should have to go to the
cemeteries and erase every inscription of hope from the
memorial stones over the resting places of our beloved
dead. No minister v^ould stand by our side as the clods
fall on the coffined dust and say, "But we look for the
general resurrection and the life of the world to come."
There would be no word of hope and no vision of home.
No invisible but real Friend would stand near us in our
sorrow and whisper to listening faith, "Let not your
heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions." We, and our
city, and our dead should all be heathen.

These are some of the things that must take place. It
is no fancy sketch. The best must go. Who would care

In North Carolina.

137

to remain in a city so spoiled? You are saying that life
would be intolerable with all these gone. So it would
for those who have once tasted the gospel. It is Chris-
tianity that makes America a good land in which to live.
And America is Christian, because in the march of events
there were men and women who felt as Paul did and who
said : "We are debtors." "We have received and we must
give." It will be kept Christian only by such people.
And the cities which are now heathen will become Chris-
tian only as those who have heard of Christ recognize
their obligation and pay their debts.

The Missionary Motive.

This is the reigning missionary motive — 'T am debtor."
No one wHo dwells in a Christian land and is a bene-
ficiary of Christian civilization, whether he believe in the
personal Christ or not, can repudiate this obligation, with-
out condemning himself at the bar of God and mankind.
A man says to me, 'T do not believe in Foreign Mis-
sions." I ask him, "Then what do you believe in? If
you do not believe in Foreign Missions, you do not be-
lieve in Christianity, you do not believe in humanity, you
do not believe in philanthrophy, you do not believe in
charity, you do not believe in education, you do not be-
lieve in character, you do not believe in fraternity. What
do you believe in? If you do not believe in Foreign
Missions, you do not believe in anything worth believing
in." The missionary enterprise is the enterprise of man-
kind.

There has been a development of the missionary
motive.

There was a time when, in order to incite to mission-
ary zeal, it was deemed necessary to pass sentence whole-

138 The Presbyterian Church

sale on all pagan and heathen religions, and denounce
them as utterly bad and altogether false. The compara-
tive study of religions has shown us that, while there is
a mighty difference between Christianity and the old-time
faiths, nevertheless pagan and heathen religions do pro-
claim many noble sentiments and insist on the practice of
many admirable virtues.

We are finding, however, that to secure an adequate
missionary motive it is not necessary to pass wholesale
condemnation on either the heathen world or its reli-
gions. There is a higher and a mightier motive. It is
that which stirred Paul when he cried, "I am debtor."
The fact that I have Christ, a divine Redeemer, puts me
in debt to all who have not heard of Him. President
Charles Cuthbert Hall, when he returned from delivering
a course of lectures on Christianity in India, declared that
after coming into contact with the best culture of the
East, and after taking into account all that is admirable
in the people and in their religion, he came back with a
stronger faith in Jesus Christ as the divine Saviour of
men. with a more solemn sense of responsibility to preach
Him to all men, and with a deeper conviction that He
alone can meet the social, civil and spiritual needs of the
world.

What is needed is for this conviction of debt to the
heathen to take possession of the church. It is not mere-
ly the sending out of a few more missionaries. We need
to send them and many more. It is not merely the giving
of a few more dollars. We need to give thousands where
we are giving hundreds. But in addition to all else,
there is needed the moving, steady, resistless, cumula-
tive momentum of the conviction that every Christian is
a debtor and that he can cancel his debt only with the
gospel. There need be no fear that the church may do

In North Carolina. 139

loo much for this cause. Someone asked Phillips Brooks
what he would do were he called to take charge of a
church heavily involved in debt, greatly discouraged and
rapidly disintegrating. He replied: "The first thing I
should do would be to take up a collection for Foreign
Missions." The church need not be afraid it will bank-
rupt itself in paying its debt to the heathen.

A Missionary Hero.

Several years ago, on the threshold of my ministry,
I became pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in
Alexandria, Va. On the first Sunday of the New Year,
January ist, 1888, I received into the church a lad of
eleven years of age named Frank Slaymaker. He w^as
the first to unite with the church on profession of faith
during my ministry in Alexandria. The incident was my
introduction to one of the most devotedly Christian fami-
lies in the parish. He had a brother, Henry, two years
his senior, who was already in the church, and a sister
a few years older still. These three with their widowed
mother made the household. Mrs. Slaymaker gave
her children to the church she did so without reservation.
The boys developed in their Christian characters and
were active in Christian work. Henry was elected an
elder on reaching young manhood.

One of the most interesting and important missions in
Africa is the Congo Mission of the Southern Presbyterian
Church, with a church organization at Luebo, 1,000 miles
from the coast, numbering over 2,000 members. It has
also been the costliest mission of the church both in
money and workers. For two years the Southern Church
had been praying for a business manager for this mis-
sion. Henry Slaymaker, with a bright business career

140 The Presbyterian Church

before him at home, offered himself and was accepted.
It was deemed best that he should be sent out as an or-
dained minister. He was examined and ordained an "ex-
traordinary case." He had never attended a theological
seminary, but his examination was so satisfactory that a
member of the Presbytery declared ''his examination
showed his mother to be a better teacher than a theologi-
cal seminary."

A few weeks after young Slaymaker sailed for the
mission field the newspapers published a cablegram say-
ing that the mission steamer Lapsley, in ascending the
Congo, had captized, and that the Rev. Henry Slaymaker
and twenty-three natives had been drowned.

Just as he was reaching the field where he was so
sorely needed and for which he was so peculiarly fitted,
he was taken. We cannot understand such a loss. Is it
a loss? No, it is a glorious investment. Since Christ
laid down his life for the world's redemption no life simi-
larly consecrated is lost, whether death come soon or late.

At the memorial service of Henry Slaymaker in his
home church in Alexandria, they actually gathered a me-
morial offering to raise the Lapsley and prosecute the
work. It is such splendid faith as this that will conquer
the world.

In a letter one of the secretaries said to the church :
''There must be no turning back now. On to Luebo must
be our cry!"

Splendid heroism ! The devotion of this young martyr
has already fired the faith of others. Christ gave his life.
What am I giving? It is the cause to which I can never
give too much, and, in which what I do, never can be lost.

/ am debtor! God help me to pay my debts!

THE EVANGELISTIC PASTOR.

By Rev. J. Wilbur Chapmax, D. D.

Just what is an evangelistic pastor? Perhaps we shall
better reach an understanding concerning his position if
we answer the question negatively.

First: He is not of necessity one who preaches con-
stantly along what is known as evangelistic lines. There
are very many people to-day who seem to think that
the pastor is not doing evangelistic work unless he is
regularly giving an invitation in so many words and all
the time calling men to repent. This is not necessarily
true, as we shall show later, for frequently the best invi-
tation is not spoken by the lips — but by the very presence
of the man of God.

Second : He is not always one who is conspicuous
because of great additions to his membership. There are
men to-day whose additions have been exceedingly small
who are as thoroughly evangelistic as those whose suc-
cess has been far more remarkable. With the minister
as with the church, it is the spirit that counts. If he has
a real concern for the lost, if he lives a life of fellowship
with Christ, he could choose any theme for his people
and it would be apparent to all his hearers that he was
longing for the lost to know Christ.

He need not of necessity close every sermon with an
appeal, although that is frequently the best thing to do,
for in so doing we impress our hearers with our confi-
dence in our message and our expectation of results.

The minister of the seminary church where I was a

142 The Presbyterian Church

student one evening preached a sermon and then returned
to his home utterly discouraged because he felt that he
was a failure in the ministry, and he practically deter-
mined that he would never preach again, yet at the same
time he was conscious that he had been greatly burdened
for the lost. Some time past midnight his door-bell rang,
and the leader of his choir, who had been counted a skep-
tic, came to him to say, "Doctor, I am in an agony con-
cerning my soul. Your sermon to-night has convicted
me of my sin and I must have help or I shall die." In a
very short time he was rejoicing in Christ. Then said
the minister to him, ''What was it in my sermon that
moved you, I should like to have you tell me." The man
replied : "It was not so much, sir, what you said but the
way you said it. I could see by the look in your eye and
by the very pathos in your voice that you were longing
for men to be saved and I could not resist your message."
But there is a positive answer to the question to-day. Let
us consider that side of it.

First : That man is evangelistic who is truly a man of
prayer and Bible study, and yet at the same time one of
intense earnest action. The greatest fanatics I know are
those w^ho study the Bible and pray almost without ceas-
ing and then stop with these devotions. They do not
fit into practice in their daily lives the message God gave
them in his Word and the vision he vouchsafed unto
them in their prayers, so on the one side there must be
prayer and Bible study; we cannot have too much of it,
while on the other side there is the translation into life
of those things which God has given us. It was thus that
Finney prayed, read God's Word and worked, and it
was thus that Mr. Moody lived and preached.

Second: That man is evangelistic in his preaching
who realizes that men are lost without Christ, and that

In North Carolina. 143

the Gospel is the only way of salvation. He believes that
it is not so much a question either of character or conduct
primarily as of the new birth. He realizes that "the
wages of sin is death, and the soul that sinneth it shall
die." With such a conviction as this, if he is true to
his ordination vows and also true to the Word of God,
he can preach in no halting, hesitating way.

An old Scotch woman went to hear Robert Murray Mc-
Cheyenne preach for the first time. Some one asked her
what she thought of him. She hesitated for a moment
and then said, what I am sure any true minister had
rather have said about him than that he was the most
brilliant preacher among men. She said : '^The man
preaches as if he was a-dyin' to have you converted."
Oh, for isuch a spirit as this in the ministry to-day. Thank
God for the men who have great intellectual power, for
those who bear well their scolastic honors to which they
are certainly entitled, but is it not true that what we
need to-day more than anything else is a gracious out-
pouring of the Holy Ghost, an energizing of that power
which comes only from on high, that we may preach for
souls ?

The pastor is pre-eminently the soul winner in his own
parish. No one can take his place. If he is not faithful
to those over whom God has made him the overseer, he
shall be called to account at the judgment seat of Christ.
Whatever we may believe concerning the office of the
evangelist, and we must believe thoroughly in this, how-
ever necessary it may be that we should give him his
rightful place in the church, *and many agree that this is
almost an absolute necessity, yet no evangelist can sup-
plant the pastor in the matter of soul-winning. But if the
pastor is to be successful, there are certain points which
must be emphasized concerning his life, and this to a

144 The Presbyterian Church

greater degree even than in the experience of the ordi-
nary pastor of a church who may hold a congregation
together because of eloquent or intellectual achievements,
because of winning social qualities or by a striking per-
sonality. Xo pastor can ever be a soul winner without
attention is given to,

First : His private life. One might preach an ordinary
sermon and by force of intellect or power of magnetism
interest an assembly. I have in mind a man who for years
led an impure life, yet, while he interested his congre-
gation with his masterful gifts, he never won a soul to
the ]\Iaster, and if any one should say in answer to. this,
''But are there not evangelists whose lives are unclean
and yet who have a measure of success?" my answer
would be, ''The evangelist may be reaping a harvest the
seed of which has been sown by some godly pastor," and
so the illustration still holds. But to be a soul winner is
entirely different. The private life must be taken into
account. There are trees, the spread of whose roots
under ground equals the spread of their branches above
ground, and this leads me to say that no man can be a
soul winner in the ministry without he is right in his
home, right in his study, right in his devotion, right in
his heart, or in other words, lives in private what he
preaches in public. Our people forget our texts, they
frequently forget our particular forms of expression, but
the spirit of the message we have delivered is about
them not infrequently for a lifetime.

A prominent American preacher told me that he once
preached in Robert Murray McCheyenne's pulpit, and
he asked if any one there had heard ]\IcCheyenne preach.
One old man was brought to the front. ''Can you tell
me," said the minister, "some of the texts of jMcChey-
enne?" and the old man made reply, 'T don't remember

In North Carolina. 145

them." ''Then can you tell me some sentences he used?"
and again the reply was, 'T have entirely forgotten
them." With a feeling of disappointment, the great
preacher said, "Well, don't you remember anything about
him at all?" "Ah," said the man, "that is a different
question. I do remember something about him. When
I was a lad by the roadside playing, one day Robert
Murray McCheyenne came along, and laying his hand
upon my head, he said, 'Jamie, lad, I am away to see
your poor sick sister,' and then looking into my eyes, he
said, 'And Jamie, I am very concerned about your own
soul.' I have forgotten his texts and his sermons, sir, but
I can feel the tremble of his hand and I can still see the
tear in his eye."

Let us remember it is not so much what we say as the
way we say it that constitutes the minister the soul
winner.

Second: The very greatest attention must be paid to
the prayer life if the pastor is to be a winner of souls,
and I doubt not but that the most of us fail just here,
largely because of the fact that we are so busy, for very
few people understand the responsibility and obligations
resting upon a pastor; from morning until night and
often night till morning he is at the call of his people and
of the citizens of the city or town where he may live,
and it is such an easy thing to pray in a perfunctory sort
of way or not to pray at all. A very few may be un-
mindful of prayer because of selfishness, a few others
because of indifference, but perhaps many of us because
we do not appreciate what the power of prayer is.

In the revival of 1857, when Canon Ryle sent out his
celebrated appeal to the Church of England, he made
this statement, that he had looked the Bible through and
found that wherever there was a man of prayer there was

146 The Presbyterian Church

a man of power; that he had studied the history of the
Church and had learned that wherever there was a man
or woman of power, there was one who knew how to
pray. He said some were Armenians, some Calvinists,
some rich, some poor, some were wise and some ignorant,
some loved the liturgy and some cared little for it, but
all knew how to pray.

Jesus was an illustration of this. In Mark we read,
"A great while before day he went away to pray." He
was the Son of God, yet he would not begin a day with-
out prayer. It is to be noticed, however, that the day
begun thus with prayer ended with the healing of the
leper. If the Son of God could not start the day without
communing with God, how dangerous it is for any of
us to try it.

In Matthew we learn that after he had fed the multi-
tudes, he went away in a quiet place to pray. He had
just worked the miracle, and yet he prays. I have a
friend in heaven who used to say that it is more difficult
to use a victory than to gain one, by which she meant that
the most dangerous day for us was the day following
a mountain-top experi-ence, for we are so liable to try
to live upon the past rather than upon the present prom-
ises of God. Jesus prayed before the miracle and after
the miracle, by day and by night. What a rebuke he is
to some of us.

In Luke we read that as he prayed, the fashion of his
countenance was changed. To my mind this is one of the
best illustrations. It will be a glad day in the church
when those of us who know Christ show by our faces
that we have been in fellowship with him. There is some-
thing about the look of the eye, the ring of the voice and
the atmosphere of a man who knows how to pray that
carries conviction always.

In North Carolina. 147

In John we read that he stooped down at the grave of
Lazarus after he had prayed, and said, ''Lazarus, come
forth."

I had a letter one day from some one who wanted me
to write on a postal card the rules for soul winning.
This seemed a strange request, when I remembered that
I had a book in my library larger than my Bible on '^How
to Win Souls," and yet you can write the rules upon a
postal card. Indeed, there is but one rule, *'Lord, teach
us to pray." The man who knows how to pray in the
right way is a soul winner always. Whatever may be
one's intellectual ability therefore, without prayer he is
weak in this direction. This is true whether he" is in the
pulpit or in the pew, whether he is a Sunday-school
teacher, or the superintendent, or just a member of the
Church.

Third : If the pastor is to be a soul winner, close at-
tention must be paid to his public life. It must in every
sense accord with his message. He cannot preach about
prayer and himself be prayerless, nor can he talk of
power and be powerless, nor can he speak of consecra-
tion and Hve a selfish life, nor can he talk of the concern
of Jesus and himself be unconcerned. Unless the private
life and the public preaching strike in unison, the preacher
is not a soul winner, nor is the Sunday-school teacher,
nor the superintendent, nor is any Christian.

Fourth: No minister can be a soul winner without he
gives close attention to his pulpit life. This suggests
the theme of the sermon which must always and ever be
the gospel. It has not lost its power, whatever men may
say to the contrary, and as a matter of fact, it is true
that wherever men are really drawing crowds of people
and holding them, their theme is the glorious gospel of
the Son of God. Sensationalism may draw for a time,

148 The Presbyterian Church

but the gospel steadily wins and always holds. We boast
a great deal in these days of our great men and noble
women in America, philanthropists, statesmen, mission-
aries, our honored fathers and mothers, but in so far
as they are Christians and the most of them are, they
have drawn their inspiration for holy living from the
story of Jesus the Son of God; cradled in the manger,
living at Nazareth, preaching in Galilee, suffering in
Gethsemane, scourged in Jerusalem, dying upon the cross,
buried in the tomb, rising with power, ascending up into
heaven, seated in glory and coming again with majesty
and power. Could there be a grander message than this,
and that minister who delivers it fearlessly and yet ten-
derly in the very spirit of Jesus himself, will be a soul
winner. It has always been true, but in addition to this
the message must be,

First : Practical. I know that I speak for a great army
of busy men and women in this world, when I say that
these people have little time to listen to philosophical dis-
cussions and mere intellectual discourses. Life is too
short for this, and as a result of the experiences of the
weak, they are too weary to give the time to listening
to what will not help them in their living, and the ma-
jority of them come to the church to hear the truth that
will make them better and truer in every way; and more
of the people of the world would join them in their wor-
ship if they were sure that they would hear from the pul-
pit the gospel which has ever transformed lives and
strengthened character.

Second: It must be personal. A distinguished New
York pastor tells of preaching a sermon one day in which
he said to his people: "every one in this church is either
a channel or a barrier for spiritual power in his relation
towards God." One prominent man returned to his

In North Carolina. 149

home, entered his library and determined to find out
which he was, and learned that he was a barrier.

Before he left the room he determined that from that
time on he would be a channel. The next day he began
to speak to his employees. The first was a Catholic, and
he urged him to be a true Catholic. Among them came
his private secretary, and he asked him if he had kept
his promises to him and if he had been a good employer.
Thinking that perhaps he was about to be discharged, the
private secretary asked him what fault he had to find with
him, when he said, "It is not that, but I am a Christian,
and I am bound for heaven, and I should not like to go
without asking you to go with me." Out from that one
store thirteen men have been won for Christ by the
testimony of this consecrated business man. The time
has come when ministers have had given to them an
opportunity to speak plainly and personally to their peo-
ple and if they speak in the spirit of Christ the message
will be received gladly, and many lives will be com-
pletely changed.

The Evangelistic Sermon.

In a conference of ministers gathered not long ago to
discuss the general subject of evangelistic work the ser-
mon was naturally discussed.

One minister said, "An evangelistic sermon is one that
reaches out after a soul"; another said, "It is a sermon
which has enough of the Gospel in it so that if one should
hear the preacher but once he would know what he must
do to be saved." Still another said, " It is a sermon which
provokes a crisis in the hearer's life," which is rather the
best definition, because it is at once apparent that men
may be evangelistic and preach not only for the winning
of souls, but for the upbuilding of character. An evange-

150 The Presbyterian Church

listic sermon is one which has a definite aim, and that
aim is the winning of the lost to Christ, and then the
building up in Christ of those who are won. It is a ser-
mon which may be practically applied in our every-day
living, and is by all means a sermon which impresses one
with his need for Christ and the absolute sincerity in th«-
desire of the preacher that he may be saved.

There may be at least four distinct marks of an evange-
listic sermon :

First. It is dictated by the Holy Ghost. Since he knowa
the hearts of men, inspired men to write the Word of
God, and at the same time is fully acquainted with us as
his instruments, it naturally follows that he can suggest
the theme and its manner of treatment w^hich would be
most effective in reaching the lost if we did but give him
the chance to do so.

The late George H. C. MacGregor told me that he came
one night to his London pulpit with his sermon carefully
prepared, for he was a thorough student, and suddenly
became impressed with the fact that for some reason he
ought to turn aside from his well-thought-out sermon and
give an entirely different message, for which he was in
his judgment not so well equipped. But he followed his
leading, preaching his sermon not with great satisfaction
to himself, and possibly with not such great delight to
his people, but the next morning he found a letter on his
table in which the writer said : "I was on my way to end
my life last night and dropped into your church just to
pass away the time. I do not remember your singing,
nor the words you spoke, but the text you chose was my
mother's favorite. It was her last message to me when I
left home as a boy, and I could not get away from it last
night. Instead of being a suicide to-day I have become a
Christian." " From that day till this," said this sainted

In North Carolina. 151

preacher, " I have tried to deUver no message that was
not clearly dictated both in the choice of the text and the
development of the theme by the Holy Spirit of God."

Second. The evangelistic sermon is one which is
wrought out in prayer and preached in the power of
prayer. There is a tendency on the part of the preacher
when he is intellectually well versed in his message to
depend upon his preparation, his power as an orator and
his natural ability to move men, but in the evangelistic
sermon, which is to lead men to Christ, not alone must
these things move him, but also that strength which comes
by prayer. It is only w^hen the sermon has been wrought
out on our knees and is preached in the consciousness,
that the one of whom we speak is just at our side, that
there is power in it to persuade the lost.

Third. An evangelistic sermon is one which is preached
first of all to oneself. It is a good thing when the message
is completed, not only to go over it on our knees, but to
go over It for ourselves. The point that fails to move
us we might as well cut out, for there is this sure test of
the power of the sermon, it will as a rule move our hearers
in the same proportion that it has moved ourselves. If
it has helped us it will help others. Mr. Spurgeon used
to say true preaching is artesian, it wells up from great
depths. This is especially true of evangelistic preaching.
Fourth. An evangelistic sermon is one w^hich is
preached with the expectation of results. " I preached
the Gospel/' said a minister to me the other day in a
western city. '' I know it was the Gospel, and at the close
of the sermon two women came to ask what they could
do to be saved. I confess to my shame that I was sur-
prised."

Evangelistic preachers have always found it true that
in proportion as they have expected results and preached

152 The Presbyterian Church

in the power of their expectation God has seemed to honor
their effort and to inspire others with the same enthusiasm.

Fifth. An evangelistic sermon is one which is well
illustrated. There are many in the pulpit to-day who are
afraid of illustrations. They ridicule the simple story-
telling preacher, and in some instances they have a right
to do so, but let us not forget that Jesus constantly told
stories of the flowers at his feet, of the birds that flew
above his head, of the w^oman that baked bread, of the
farmer that sowed the seed, of the old father that waited
for his boy. He never preached a sermon without an
illustration, indeed without many of them, but the illus-
tration must illustrate.

One of our prominent ministers in this country in tell-
ing of the visit of the celebrated Dr. Lorenz to this coun-
try told of the little boy who was operated upon for the
straightening of his foot. He said after he was out from
under the power of the anaesthetic, " It will be a long time
before my mother hears the last of this, doctor," and then
he told the story also of a boy of his own acquaintance
from a poor German family, whose foot was crooked and
who was operated upon by a celebrated doctor. The
operation was a success and then the minister under
whose influence the work had been done went to the
hospital to take the boy home. The plaster caste is taken
away from the foot, and it is as perfect as the otlier. When
his attention w^as called to the nurses in the hospital, to
the equipment of the institution, to the fine windows in
the building, to every suggestion the boy would reply,
"But these things are nothing compared with the doctor.
He is the greatest man I have ever known." And w^hen
they reached the Missouri town and they stept off the
train the old German mother was waiting to receive her
child. She did not look at his hands, neither at his face,

In North Carolina. 153

but she fell on her knees and looked at his foot and then
cried out with tears, " It is just like any other foot." As
she took the boy in her arms sobbing over and over he
kept saying to her, " Mother, you must know the doctor,
you must know the doctor." Then the preacher turned
upon his audience to say, "And yet there is no one of us
but what Jesus Christ has done ten thousand times more
than the doctor did for that boy and we have never spoken
for him."

This illustration is a sermon in itself. It was something
in the every-day life of the preacher. There are hun-
dreds of instances like it occurring in the year. Ability to
see these things and to apply them in our teaching and
preaching w^ould increase our effectiveness almost a hun-
dredfold.

THE EVANGELISTIC CHURCH.

There is a general inquiry to-day in all parts of the
church both on the part of ministers and laymen concern-
ing the evangelistic church. It is possibly true also that
there is in many quarters of the church a misconception
as to what the spirit and the work of such a church should
be. The commission given by the great head of the
church is clearly set forth in the New Testament Scrip-
tures— Matthew xxviii. 16-20; Mark xvi. 15-20; Luke
xxiv. 46-49; Acts ii. 1-4.

From all of which we learn : .

First. That God expects us to evangelize the unsaved
and the unchurched masses. If a church is not evange-
listic, it will soon cease to be evangelical.

Second. That God equips us to evangelize. He has left
undone no part of his w^ork. It is no question as to our
own ability or fitness, but altogether a question as to his

154 The Presbyterian Church

filling us with that power which enables us to do his will,
and this he has pledged himself in his word to do.

Third. If he expects and equips, then he will one day
require at our hands an accounting for the field we might
have occupied and the power we might have possessed.

I. — The Church.

What is the church? Whatever other definition may
be given this at least is correct so far as our conception of
the evangelistic church is concerned:

It is the body of believers united by faith to Christ,
who is the living head. This at once suggests a line of
truth regarding the conduct of the body.

There used to be a man in Washington who as he
walked the streets always attracted the attention of
passers-by to himself.

First. Because of his remarkable head, which they said
was more like the head of Daniel Webster than any other
since his day. And, secondly, because of his deformed
body. The first was a look of admiration, the second one
of pity, and is this not a truth for us ? Our head is per-
fect ; when he was here among men they said, " Never
man spake like this man." Now that he is exalted at the
right hand of God he is the chiefest among ten thousand
and the one altogether lovely. But concerning the body,
in some places at least we are privileged to say that it
poorly represents him and illy illustrates his spirit. If he
is the head and the church is the body then it naturally
follows that we are expected to do his will, and at once
the question is asked, ''But may we know his will"? "Cer-
tainly we may know it, by studying carefully his instruc-
tions to his disciples." In the early days he said, as he
sent them forth, 'T will make you fishers of men," and as
he sent out the seventy it was to preach and to teach. In

In North Carolina. 155

his parables and his sermons the same spirit is plainly
manifest, and since he is the unchanging Christ, his will
of other days is his will for to-day. In the Epistle to the
Hebrews we read: "J^sus Christ the same yesterday, to-
day and forever," but in the Revision there is a change
made in the translation and we read: "J^sus Christ the
same yesterday, to-day, yea and forever." There is the
addition of the word "yea." Some one has suggested that
the author of the Epistle is writing concerning the Jesus
of yesterday and to-day being the same, when suddenly, as
it were, the very angels in the skies break forth, '' Yea
and forever." He is the same in heaven in his purpose
and desires as when he walked among men and commis-
sioned them to go out and seek the lost until they were
found.

There are some things which the evangelistic church is
not.

First. It is not of necessity a church which holds extra
services, although these are as a rule advisable, for it is
by the extraordinary service that the attention of some is
called to Christ who would not otherwise think of him
in their busy lives, yet one of the strongest churches in
America never passes a communion without a large acces-
sion. Recently one hundred and sixty-six came to Christ
at one communion service, and it is the exception rather
than the rule that extra services are held. The sainted
Andrew Bonar, it is said, rarely held an extra service, and
never passed a communion without the coming of many
into the fold.

Second. It is not of necessity a church of constant
accessions. If the seed is faithfully sown and there is an
earnest evangelistic purpose the Lord of the harvest wdl
care for the result. For a time they may be meagre, but

156 The Presbyterian Church

God's statement is true, " His word shall not return unto
him void."

Third. It is not of necessity a church having important
accessions, for as men count the work frequently it is a
failure, so few come to him ; as God views it it is the most
pronounced success. When the old Scotch minister said,
no one ti"ad joined his church for a long period of time
except Bobbie i\Iof¥att, he little knew, as Joseph Parker
once said, that when he added Robert Mofifatt to the
church he practically added a continent to the Kingdom
of God. It is the spirit of the church that counts, and
if underlying every public service, whether it be the
preaching on Sunday, or the midweek prayer service, the
gathering of the elders or the meeting of the Sunday-
school teachers, there is plainly manifest a real concern
for the lost. With such conditions prevailing we have an
evangelistic church.

II. — The Evangelistic.

First. The evangelistic church is one, the spirit of which
breathes a welcome to every one who crosses its threshold,
and whether it be the minister's sermon, the music of the
choir, the grace with which the ushering is accomplished,
the welcome given to the stranger, the spirit is all the
spirit of Christ, in which lost men are made to feel their
need of him and are impressed with the thought that there
is hope for every one away from him.

Second. The evangelistic church is one willing to use
any method, whatever that method may be, so long as it
may have the approval of the Great Head of the Church
and may detract nothing from his honor and glory and
not in any way grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Since the
shepherd sought his sheep until he found it, and the

In North Carolina. 157

woman her piece of money until she recovered it, and the
father waited for his boy until he was home once more,
so let us change our methods if need be until we impress
the lost with the fact that we long for them to know him
who died that they might live. He said he would make
us fishers of men.

Third. The evangelistic church is a church of prayer.
It is said that when Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey went as
strangers across the sea their first meeting in the morning
was a discouragement, and in the evening it was a gra-
cious manifestation of God's power, and some time after-
wards it was found that one of the members of that
church had read a little notice in a paper concerning the
work of the unknown evangelists. Moody and Sankey, in
America, and had prayed God to send them to her land and
to her ohurch. This little slip of paper she had kept under
her pillow and when she knew that the evangehsts had
come, she burst into tears and cried : ''Now, Lord, lettest
thou thine servant depart, for mine eyes have seen thy
salvation." There never has been a revival in history that
has not been born in prayer. There never has been an
evangelistic church since the church was dedicated that
was not nurtured by prayer. The time has come to call
the followers of Christ to their knees. It would seem
almost as if God's set time to favor Zion is now here.

Fourth. The evangelistic church is one in which pastor
and church are practically of one mind. Since Jesus him-
self couldi do no mighty works because of their unbelief,
how can a pastor to-day accomplish very much if he is
opposed by his church or hindered by indifiference. They
must both together have one mind, and that the mind of
him who ever sought the lost, then there is a mighty force
brought to play upon the conscience and life of the un-
saved which cannot possibly be gainsaid.

158 The Presbyterian Church

III. — A Final Word.

First. The evangelistic church is an organized church.
I am well aware that we may press the question of organi-
zation too far, but at the same time I remember that our
God is a God of order, and that a perfect piece of machin-
ery may be so yielded to him as that we would lose all
thought of the machinery and stand amazed at the exhi-
bition of power.

(a) The church officers must be enlisted in this special
service for Christ. Would it not be possible for the pastor
to meet his officers before he preached, and that they then
pray for the blessing of God upon his sermon ? Would it
not be feasible for pastor and church officers to have at
least one meeting a month when only prayer should be
offered for God's guidance of the church? In some
churches this plan has been adopted, and now^here has it
been known to fail.

(b) The men of the church must be enlisted. Whatever
may be said to the contrary this is the testimony of
workers who have been successful in reaching men foi
Christ, the work must be done through men. I am not
unmindful of the power of a mother's prayer, of a wife's
example, but never until the rnen ar.e enlisted, banded
together, thoroughly consecrated and filled with the Holy
Ghost may we expect the ingathering from their ranks.

(c) The sympathies of the young people should be en-
listed. Is it not a practical thing to suggest that for at
least three months of time the young people of our
churches should seek to win their comrades and com-
panions for Christ? This could be done in many cases if
the pastor and the church officers would show their sym-
pathy by their presence, would counsel the young people
so fhat they might be saved from making grievous mis-
takes. The young people of our churches might be com-

In North Carolina. 159

pletely transformed if this mission were held up before
them.

(d) The Sunday-school should be counted an evange-
lizing agency. Since it is true that the majority of the
people coming into the church come from the ranks of the
Sunday-school scholars, we have an illustration which to
say the least is forceful, but we have only begun our work
in this direction. The majority of people in the church
to-day come to Christ before they are twenty years of
age, and if we miss the organization of our Sunday-
schools along this line we are guilty at least of a mistake
for which we will one day be called to an account. Could
there not be arranged conferences with the superintend-
ents and the teachers, the older scholars in the school,
when prayer would be offered for the unsaved and an
effort be made to lead them to Christ. What we need,
however, is to be definite in our work.

(e) The church itself should be thoroughly organized.
Is there any better suggestion to be made than that con-
cerning the circle of prayer?

How TO Form a Prayer Circle.

1. Dedicate yourself to God for this service of inter-
cession.

2. Ask him for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, that
you may be "a vessel unto honor^ sanctified and meet for
the Master's use, and prepared unto 'this' work."

3. Ask that you may be guided as to whom you should
invite to join the circle of prayer.

4. In prayer seek for guidance as to all details of indi-
vidual or collective prayer, such as times of prayer or
meeting together and subjects.

5. Watch for answers, and any indications of answers,
to the prayers offered ; but do not be discouraged if defi-

i6o The Presbyterian Church

nite answers be delayed. Intercessory prayer often re-
quires the exercise of much faith and patience.

Why should it not be possible for the pastor of the
church to call upon his members to unite with him in a
prayer circle, and perhaps have numerous circles in his
congregation, which should meet from time to time with
some degree of regularity ? In many parts of our country
this is already done and some of our most successful
pastors are following this line of work.

Second. The evangelistic church is a spiritual church,
and that church may be counted spiritual in which the
Holy Ghost has his rightful place. If we should make it
a rule in our churdhes to devise no plans, adopt no
methods without these things were all submitted to God,
and we were conscious of his approval a new day would
dawn upon us. That church is spiritual in which the
minister as well as a goodly number of the church people
are wholly surrendered to Christ. When (he has the right
of way in our lives blessing will surely follow and the
unsaved in large numbers will be won to him.

The Church Service.

There is much criticism to-day concerning the Church,
which is positively unjust. It is quite useless to say that
there are no flaws in the present organization as men can
see it, but it is also equally true that in the best ordered
homes, in those households where there is the greatest
amount of peace and comfort, there are elements of weak-
ness. One could break up his home in less than three
months if he should parade the flaws of his home life
before all who would listen to him. It is both unjust to
the Church and disloyal to Christ for one to keep con-
stantly harping upon the weakness of our church life,

In North Carolina. i6i

when there is so much on the other side to arouse en-
thusiasm and to provoke the most generous affection,
and yet without having the least spirit of harsh criticism,
it is, alas, also true that concerning the services of our
Church, the following may be justly stated:

First : The service is too formal. Formality is gen-
erally observed at the expense of spiritual power and
life. In very many of our churches from one year's end
to the other, there is no variation of the service. An
invocation, frequently singing by a choir which cannot
be understood, three hymns by the congregation sung in
a half-hearted manner in many of our churches, two
prayers by the minister, one short and the other long,
a sermon of varying length, a benediction, and the ser-
vice is over. It is inconceivable that the man of the
world who cares nothing for the sentiment of the ser-
vice and who feels no special obligation to attend church,
should be interested by that which he knows will be the
same whether he attends the service on the Atlantic
Coast, on the Pacific, in the northern portion of our coun-
try or in the extreme south. It would be far from me
to wish too great an informality in the worship of God
and the conduct of the services of his sanctuary, but I
am quite sure that the time is upon us when if we would
attract attention to him who is able to save to the utter-
most, we must do the unusual thing.

One of our great Scotch preachers has said that the
disposition which some of us have to pray regularly three
times a day, is well enough in itself, but may not ac-
complish its purpose, for the devil knows concerning our
purpose, and he says that man will pray at morning, at
noon and at night, and whenever he prays I will be there
to attract his attention to other things, and his prayer will
be lifeless and indifferent. Could he not say the same

i62 The Presbyterian Church

thing concerning some of the services of our churches?
If he knows anything at all, he must know just what we
are going to do, for we know this ourselves.

John Robertson, the Scotch preacher, some little time
ago, preached a sermon on that text found in i Peter ii. 7 :
"Unto you therefore which believe he is precious," and
he said if the verse should be rightly read it would be
like this, "Unto you therefore \vhich believe," then there
is a break in the manuscript, or a pause, and the word,
"Precious," might be translated "preciousness," or to
change it again, it might be translated ''Hallelujah," and
his interpretation was that Peter is writing along in his
message and finds himself saying, "Unto you therefore
which believe," and suddenly there came to him a vision
of the one who had chosen him to be his follower and
sent him forth to preach, had forgiven him his wander-
ings, and sent a special messenger after his resurrection,
and he is so full of emotion that suddenly he breaks forth
with an exclamation of, "preciousness or hallelujah."
Such a break as this in the service of an ordinary church
w^ould be counted a most extraordinary thing, but I can
conceive that there might come into a church a great in-
fusion of new life if there should be a disposition on
the part of those who preach and teach to yield them-
selves more perfectly to him who witnesses to Christ and
allow him to have his way with us and through us, in-
stead of our own will concerning that which might be
proper in our judgment.

Again, may it not be said that the Church is too cold.
There are certain things which may cause this condition.
Following Christ afar off would make it possible; com-
ing in touch with the world would produce it as an in-
evitable result ; even indifference would not be without
influence in the production of such a state of affairs. I

In North Carolina. 163

can think of no one thing that would so bring new Ufe to
the Church, warmth to the preacher and a glow of en-
thusiasm to every department of service as the cuUi-
vation of the spirit of evangehsm, or in other words, a
devotion of the membership of the Church to the winning
of souls to Christ.

Mr. Spurgeon used to tell of a census taker who went
about the city of London, particularly in his part of the
great city, to secure such information as might be valu-
able to his workers. He found an old couple living in
an attractive-looking house, everything outside was neat
and inside it was almost perfect. The old people were
sitting on either side of a fire-place, so far as the visitor
could see, in perfect comfort, and wdien the questions had
been answered he said to them, 'T should think you would
be very happy. You are away from the turmoil of life,
you have fought your battles and won your victories, and
you are here now in the evening time of your existence
together, with naught to disturb you or make you afraid,"
and the old lady made response, saying: ''Well, we are
not happy; we used to be, when we heard the sounds of
children's voices about the house, but now we are here
alone, and we have neither chick nor child about us. We
sit here all the day long, my husband and I : he looks at
me and I look at him, until we almost grow sick of the
sight of each other. Oh," she said, "if we could only
hear the children again we would have joy." .This is
a picture of many a church with the minister preaching to
the people and the people simply looking at him, until
sometimes he feels that he would welcome anything if
only the church would be aroused, the formality driven
away and the coldness depart. I know of nothing that
would cause this result to be so quickly apparent as to

164 The Presbyterian Church

hear the sound of the voices of those who are new-born
babes in Christ Jesus.

A soul winning church is never a church spiritually
cold. The two positions are positively irreconcilable.

May it not also be true that the Church is too indefinite
in its work. Wherever there is a successful church to-
day, without exception that church wall be found to be
carrying on a definite work, both at home and abroad.
The minister plans his w^ork and w^orks his plan. If he
preaches a series of sermons, it is in order that some
result may be accomplished not only in the present, but
in the future; if he has a social gathering, it is in order
that through this gathering he may accomplish some other
purpose ; if he makes pastoral calls, it is because he earn-
estly hopes to bring his influence to bear upon his people
to lead them to take some new position for aggressive
work for Christ. If business men must plan their busi-
ness, and they must, then why should not the leaders of
the Church plan their work, which is more important
than any business in the w^orld to-day, for the King's
business not only requires haste, but requires ingenuity
and careful planning. Why would it not be possible at
the beginning of the church year for the minister and his
officers to definitely decide that every aim and every
effort throughout the year should be to accomplish cer-
tain definite spiritual results, and for this they w^ould
plan and pray and work.

Nothing is so inspiring as the music of the church ser-
vice, and nothing can be more distressing. It is quite
as inconsistent to have an unconverted choir as to have
an unconverted minister, for both lead in the worship of
God. It is just as reasonable for a minister to preach
in an unknown tongue as for a choir to sing after this
fashion, and it is almost the exception rather than the

In North Carolina. 165

rule to understand many of the choirs of our important
churches. Sometimes the music fails because the words
and the music clash; sometimes it fails because the sub-
ject of the hymn is utterly foreign to the main part of
the service, and frequently it fails because we attach
too little importance to it as an element in reaching and
influencing the lives of the people. It is quite true that
the theology of very many people is obtained from the
hymns they sing. Little children singing ''Alas and did
my Saviour bleed," catch an idea of the atonement ; when
they sing, "J^sus paid it all," they begin to have some
conception of justification, and under the influence of,
''Nearer my God to thee," they learn great lessons of
fellowship with Christ. It is said that one of the most
attractive features of Mr. Spurgeon's service was the
singing of his great congregation, when no choir took the
place of the singing of the people, and when even an
organ was dispensed with in order that the people might
stand together and praise God, as they did in a most
wonderful way, and yet what could be better than the
choir of singers, consecrated to Christ, enthusiastic in
their singing, because they realized that next to the min-
ister they have to do with the reaching of the people,
and in many cases beyond the minister, they have a
power over the unsaved.

"It is impossible to hold the unconverted masses with-
out interesting them. In gaining this purpose, the power
of song has, in France, proved most effective. The
Moody and Sankey songs are translated and sung quite
as much in Paris as in New York. The wanderers on
fhe street at night can be thus attracted. These songs are
open to criticism on grounds of reverence and truthful-
ness, as well as of aesthetics. But for their purpose of

i66 The Presbyterian Church

drawing and holding the masses, they are unequalled.
Scores of people will come off the street to sing

" The half was never told,'

who would turn away from the most eloquent sermon."^

What power there could be for good if frequently in
the Sunday evening services at least sweet Gospel hymns
should be announced, the whole congregation asked to
sing, occasionally a solo sung by one who had prayed
over the singing as the pastor ought to pray over his
preaching. If the preaching of the Church to-day needs
to be turned into evangelistic channels, there is far great-
er necessity for insisting that the singing should be more
evangelistic.

Mr. Moody was a shrewd leader of men, and there
were few men who ever went beyond him in exalting the
power of the singing of a hymn in which there was to
be found the spirit of the Gospel. The preaching is, of
course, the important part of the entire service, for by the
foolishness of preaching God has ordained ^that men
should come to know Christ and to understand his beau-
ty, but there are certain points which must be emphasized
in connection with the preaching which is to be evangel-
istic in its purpose.

First: The truth preached must be experienced. No
man can talk with any success about prayer and be
prayerless, about consecration and withhold his gift from
the altar, about love for souls and himself be indifferent
to lost men.

"No one preaches the truth with power until he has
had a deep personal experience of its power. The truths
which were so mighty on the lips of Luther and Wesley

^ "The working church."

In North Carolina. 167

and Finney and Moody had first been mighty in their
own hearts. Suppose we ministers begin with ourselves,
and make sure that we are ready for disinterested service ;
make it quite sure that we ourselves have been to Gol-
gotha, and have there been crucified, so that we are dead,
and the life in us is the hfe of Christ; make it quite sure
that our own hearts are aglow with the love that over-
flows to God and man. Then we may expect that these
neglected truths of Jesus will be preached to the churches
with mighty power until church membership really stands
for Christian service, Christian sacrifice and Christian
love. And then this Gospel of God will indeed be the
power of God unto salvation to the multitudes to whom
he is now unreal.

"When God becomes real to men, the guilt of sin be-
comes real ; and, as we have seen, God is actualized when
he is interpreted in the terms of present-day truth and in
the every-day life of living epistles."

Second : Christ must be preached in all his fullness. It
will not do to ignore any part of the scheme of redemp-
tion. One might just as truly err in being over-zealous in
what is properly called evangelistic services, as being
indifferent on the other side to the necessity of preaching
what we call the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
Truth is always pow^erful if it is preached in all of its
fullness.

" The rapid growth of 'Christian Science,' so-called, is
a reaction from a Christianity which ignores the physi-
cal, and therefore does not recognize the interrelation of
soul and body; precisely as Unitarianism was a reaction
from an orthodoxy which practically ignored the humanity
of our Lord ; and reactions are naturally one-sided and
extreme. The remedy for them is to preach the well-
rounded truth. We are slowly learning by costly exper-

i68 The Presbyterian Church

ience that no great Scriptural truth can be safely neg-
lected ; sooner or later it appears in caricature."^

Yet there is this to be said, and it must be said with
emphasis, that for one who is in sin and therefore abso-
lutely lost there is no story whidh can keep and lift and
save but the story of the crucified one.

Dr. Jowett, of Birmingham, England, tells the story of
the late Dr. Berry which illustrates my point. He returned
from his service one day to find a child waiting at his
door who asked him if he would not come at once and
help to get her mother in. He did not understand iher re-
quest, thinking possibly she was in the cold and had been
turned out of her home, but at last in response to her
earnest entreaties he went and found the mother dying.
He did what he could to help her, but seemed utterly
powerless. He told the story of the Prodigal Son, but she
seemed uninterested. He brought to her attention the
story of the reclaiming of fallen women and Christ bless-
ing the little children, that she might know that there was
no one so weak and no one so sinful as to be beyond the
power of his love, and she was still unmoved, and at last
he said to his friend, ^he drew out of me bit by bit the
story of Jesus born in Bethlehem, living In Nazareth,
preaching in Galilee, suffering in Jerusalem, dying on the
cross, rising from the dead and' ascending into glory, and^
as I told her the story her eyes filled with tears and her
lips trembled and then there came a look of ineffable peace
and joy, and she passed away, and said Dr. Berry to his
friend, "I believe I got her In."

This Is the only story for a lost and ruined race, and we
cannot be evangelistic if we neglect it, nor can we expect
God to bless us in the winning of souls.

1 "The next great awakening."

In North Carolina. 169

Third. Preaching, to be evangelistic, must be done with
the confident expectation of results. .The unsaved people
in our congregation are quick to detect our own anticipa-
tion of failure ; they are equally sensitive to our confident
belief that what we say is to have weight with them and
may be used of God to save their souls.

Over in the almost midnight darkness of Africa toiled
Robert and Mary Moffatt ; for ten years they labored on
without a single convert. They were four hundred miles
beyond the place of civilization. They had only about
them the most degraded savages, yet they never for a
moment faltered and never for a single moment did they
have any other thought than this, that they were sure to
be successful. A letter was received from a friend asking
if there was anything of use w^hich could be sent by their
minister. " The significant answer of Mary Mof¥att was,
'Send us a communion service. We shall want it some
day.' It came three years later, the day before the first
converts were baptized."

With such a spirit as this in the preaching, with
supreme confidence in God and in his Word, w4tli absolute
certainty that if Christ be preached faithfully God's Word
cannot return unto him void, there must be increased effi-
ciency in our church services and great numbers of people
brought to Christ. Yet if the church of Christ could only
be aroused to put into practice his preaching and teaching
in this present day, and other days, how men would be
helped, how souls would be won and how the very wilder-
ness would blossom as a rose.

" Let us suppose a church somewhere, whose members
have such an enthusiasm for humanity that when they lie
awake nights they are planning not how to make money,
but how to make men. Their supreme desire is to help
the world in general and their own community in particu-

170 The Presbyterian Church

lar. They are striving daily to remove every moral and
physical evil ; tr}ang to give every child who comes into
the world the best possible chance ; longing and working
and praying and spending themselves and their substance
to save men from sin and ignorance and suffering! Let
us suppose the whole church is co-operating to this end.
What a transformation such a church would work in any
community ! How it would 'reach the masses' ! How it
would grow ! How it would be talked about and written
up! Men would make pilgrimages to study its workings
and its success. Yet such a church ought not to be in the
least degree peculiar."^ And such a church as this is
possible in every community in the world if only the Word
of God is received as authentic, if only Christ is believed
on and his teachings practiced. That such a church is not
to be seen to-day in many of our cities and towns is to our
reproach.

1 "The next great awakening."

REV. S. L. MORRIS, D. D.

HOME MISSIONS, THE SUPREME
NEED OF THE HOUR.

Rev. S. L. Morris, D. D., Secretary.

The history of the church is a history of missions. Its
ratio of progress has always been measured by its mis-
sionary activity. The decline of the missionary spirit is
the signal for stagnation. It is the glory of the Presby-
terian church that it is a missionary organization, whose
purpose aims at nothing short of the conquest of the
world for Christ; and this task will be accomplished
largely by impressing the individual with his individual
responsibility as a member of a missionary organization.
Loyalty to Christ can be maintained only by the accept-
ance of Christ's authority as the head of the church and
obedience to Christ's marching orders — ''Go ye into all
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Dis-
obedience is rebellion ; and indifference is the very es-
sence of disobedience.

The division of the subject into Home and Foreign
Missions is a human distinction, which may be justified
by the necessities of administration and the distribution
of the work, but is not strictly scriptural. In Christ's
analysis of the subject one shades off gradually into the
other ; and Foreign Missions is simply an extension of the
work to its farthest Hmits. " Ye shall be witnesses unto
me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth." "J^^^^^alem
and all Judea," are unquestionably what we denominate
Home Missions; and ''The uttermost part of the earth"

172 The Presbyterian Church

certainly contemplates Foreign Missions ; whilst " Sa-
maria" is the connecting link between them, partaking
partly of the character of each. " Samaria" corresponds
to the foreigners in our land — Alexicans in Texas, Indians
of Oklahoma and "the regions beyond" our organized
Presbyteries. It is Foreign Missions at home! Many
professing Christians "do not believe in Foreign Mis-
sions/' but that is no evidence that they will support the
work of the church in the home field. It amounts to
nothing more than an excuse to shirk the duty of con-
tributing to Foreign Missions. Equally inconsistent are
the Christians who rave over the Africans on the banks
of the Congo, and are absolutely indifferent to the nine
millions of Africans at their own door. The highest type
of Christians are they who estimate the value of a lost
soul in terms of the Gospel and in the mathematics of
heaven, regarding the most degraded soul in heathendom
of equal worth with the most refined in civilization, and
considering the most cultured unsaved soul in Christen-
dom as truly lost as the meanest in Africa or China.

Christ combined in his own person both Home and
Foreign Missions. In his divinity as the Son of God,
he was a foreign missionary, a volunteer from heaven to
the heathen of earth. In his humanity, as the son of man,
he was a home missionary solely, who never went beyond
his native Palestine. In his command he laid the em-
phasis first on Home Missions, " Beginning at Jerusalem,"
but that emphasis reaches "unto the uttermost part of the
earth." The disciples in carrying out the instructions of
the Master went first "to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel," but they inaugurated at the same time the scheme
of world-wide evangelism. In one sense, Paul was the
grandest of all Foreign Missionaries who turned from
Israel to preach Christ to the Gentiles ; and yet, in another

In North Carolina. 173

sense he was as truly a home missionary, for he was a
citizen of the Roman Empire and never left its confines.
Home Missions are always a means tow^ard an end. Its
motto is "Save America to save the world."

I. Home Missions are the basis of all denominational
growth. A church may do a magnificent work for For-
eign Missions, and yet stand still, w^hilst other denomina-
tions are growing rapidly on every side, as is the case of
the Moravian Church. If this noble church had carriea
on the work at home and abroad pari passu, how much
sooner it would have reached ''unto the uttermost part
of the earth." If the same zeal for Foreign Missions had
characterized its efforts to expand at home, it would
to-day number doubtless more than a million communi-
cants. If its small membership is winning the admiration
of the world, what magnificent results would have blessed
the efforts of a million ! The denominations to-day which
lead all others in the number of their communicants in the
United States are those who are conspicuous in their zeal
for Home Missions. There is no surer method of propa-
gating the faith of a church and no more rapid means of
advancing into every nook and corner of the country than
by Home Missions. If as a church we are to expand with
the expansion and development of this great country;
if we are to reach the millions yet unborn ; if we are to
influence by our religious life and thought the destiny of
our cosmopolitan populations ; if we are to multiply our-
selves a hundred or a thousand fold in the coming cen-
turies, we must begin at once by means of Home Missions
to sow the seed "beside all waters." In the early days of
Christianity it was a proverb, "The blood of the martyrs
is the seed of the church." It is as true to-day, that the
propagation of the faith costs the very life blood of the
church. It means life-long martyrdom in hardships, suf-

174 The Presbyterian Church

fering, toil and self-sacrifice on tne part of our humble
unappreciated home missionaries, who "have borne the
burden and heat of the day," and prepared the way for
our city pastors, who reap harvests upon which they "be-
stowed no labor," illustrating the saying of Christ, "Other
men labored and ye are entered into their labors." As
others prepared the way for us, so we should lay founda-
tions for future generations in a great wide-spread Home
Mission campaign, which will mean the multiplication of
our religious forces in an ever-increasing geometrical pro-
gression to parallel the marvellous progress of this most
strenuous of nations.

2. Home Missions are the supreme need of the hour,
if we are to reach the myriads who are perishing in our
boasted Christian country. It is easy enough to soothe
our conscience with the thought that in this land of Gospel
privileges any man can hear the message oT salvation
who will. But does that end our responsibility? Is it
enough to ring the church bell and announce in the daily
papers, '' Seats free and all cordially invited" ? Does the
responsibility of bringing m.en to Christ terminate with
their opportunities to attend service and our invitations
to church? Is there any greater obligation to go ''into
all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature"
than to go out "into the highways and hedges and compel
them to come in"? Can the great city church feel that it
has met its obligation to Christ and lost souls by erecting
its handsome church edifice for the enjoyment of its own
religious privileges, and sending its representative to the
foreign field, whilst multitudes are perishing almost
within the sound of its church bells ? Are we prepared to
answer the question of Jehovah, " Where is thy brother?"
by denying our responsibility, and in indifference raising
the indignant challenge, "Am I my brother's keeper"?

In North Carolina. 175

Who are these lost in our Christian land, for whom we
have any kind of responsibihty however vague and in-
definite? Take but the merest glance at the multitudes
in a brief survey of the field :

It has been estimated that, leaving out of the calculation
the membership of the various branches of the church and
the children of immature years, there are at least forty-
nine millions of unsaved souls in our very midst. It ex-
ceeds in num'ber the entire Empire of Japan; and they
are as truly lost as the most degraded of the dark con-
tinent. Are Home Missions of secondary importance,
considering that there is no other means of saving these
millions who are our own kith and kin ? Already the tide
of immigration rolling in upon our shores has passed the
million limit. The province of God is bringing more than
a million heathen annually into our very midst and making
us wrestle with the foreign mission problem at home.
Far down in the bowels of the earth are the miners who
toil for our comfort, whilst their neglected children huddle
together in wretched villages. By day and by night the
mill people are chained to the looms of our factories, till
they themselves are but part of the machinery itself,
which enormously increases the wealth of the church,
that passes them by in the distribution of the bread of
life. Stranded among the mountains are more than three
millions of people who are descendants of the Scotch-Irish
practically without the Gospel, or having only a carica-
ture of it. Exceeding even them in number are the
densely populated slums of our great cities, where chil-
dren grow up in as dense ignorance of the Gospel as if
born in Thibet or the Soudan. Add to this the great
West, where the tides of population roll in their floods of
peoples of every conceivable character. Professing Chris-
tians, once active in church service, leaving their Chris-

176 The Presbyterian Church

tian obligation behind them, and young men free from
the restraints of the home Hfe, mingle together, controlled
largely by the passion for money-getting, the flame being
fanned by the business opportunities of a rapidly de-
veloping country. Mothers of the East turn their aching
hearts towards the West, asking themselves the question,
which they fear to answer, " Where is my wandering boy
to-night?" Is there any other method of reaching our
sons and daughters who have left forever the parental
roof for contact and struggle with the world's evil forces,
than by lifting into its appropriate place the neglected
cause of Home Missions, till we compel its consideration
by the church as the supreme need of the hour ?

3. The necessity of a new estimation and emphasis of
Home Missions arises from the Industrial Awakening of
the South, the marvel of the age. Buildings are going
up everywhere in all of our cities, and yet the demand
is greater than the supply. In many sections of the Pied-
mont Belt the traveller rides hundreds of miles and is not
out of sight of the smoke of a factory till another comes
to view. Additional trains are added on all of our rail-
roads, and yet they are so crowded as to be uncomfort-
able. Railroads cannot haul the freight. Manufacturers
have sold far in advance of the supply, and orders must
be placed months ahead to be filled. Demand for labor is
the cry everywhere. Several States have agents in
Europe offering a premium for immigrants.

The following items are gathered at random from
Herbert A. Smith, of the United States Department of
Agriculture: "About one-seventh of the mineral produc-
tion of the entire country comes from the Southern States.
Of bituminous coal, the most valuable mineral, the South
produces one-fourth; and of iron, about one-ninth. Its
coal resources amount to nearly $600,000,000,000 tons.

In North Carolina. 177

or more than one-fourth of our estimated coal reserve.
The showing in iron ore reserves is quite as good ; a safe
minimum is over 3,000,000,000 tons, or nearly one-third
of the nation's total. On a basis of value of product, the
South furnishes more than two-sevenths of our oil, and
more than one-sixth of our gas. The total value of the
iron output in 1905 was not quite $7,000,000. It seems
altogether safe to say that the South is now deriving
$150,000,000 a year gross from its mines and quarries."

The total estimated value of timber trees in board feet
is $700,000,000,000. Farm products, $941,599,856; ani-
mal products, $361,495,455. The value of farm property
in Texas alone amounts to more than $1,000,000,000. The
cotton crop of the South has suddenly doubled itself in
value, increasing from $300,000,000 a year to $600,000,-
000; whilst the entire value of the cotton crop — cotton-
seed oil and kindred products — amounts to $1,000,000,-
000. The cabbage and lettuce crops of South Carolina
bring in larger sums than the entire revenue of the State
before the war. Railroad mileage has increased from
$44,087 in 1890 to $67,129 in 1905 alone in the Southern
States.

Clarence Hamilton Poe, in the " World's Work" for
June says : " The last fifty years have seen the making of
a dozen new commonwealths beyond the Mississippi ; the
next fifty years will see the remaking of a dozen old
commonwealths below Mason and Dixon's line. From
1900 to 1950 the South will be the land of opportunity.
As our epic of the nineteenth century was "Winning the
West," so our epic of the twentieth century will be the
"Development of the South."

Taking, then. North Carolina as an illustration, he gives
some startling figures — "In population North Carolina
was sixteenth in rank among the States in 1890, fifteenth

178 The Presbyterian Church

in 1900; twenty-third in rank as an agricultural State
in 1890, it was twentieth in 1900; ranking thirty-first in
manufacturing in 1890, in 1900 it stood twenty-eighth.
For net gain of rank in population, agriculture and manu-
factures it was equalled by no old State east or west of the
Mississippi, and only the newest of the new States and
Territories of the West — Oklahoma and Montana, draw-
ing a sudden stream of men and means from all other
sections — kept the same pace

" In the last five years the people of the State have put
more money into industrial establishments than they had
accumulated in them for the two hundred years preceding.
Every time the moon changes, they now add as much to
their property values as they had averaged per year prior
to 1900. . . .

" No longer content with merely supplying the wants
of our own people, North Carolina's cotton trade with
China is now so extensive that America's diplomatic
relations with the Orient are of interest to the entire State.
North Carolina's tobaccos are advertised on the Ganges
and the Nile. . . Some years ago a man who had failed
at another business started a $3,500 chair factory in
Thomasville. Three years later one $500 stockholder
refused $5,000 for his share of it. Other factories sprang
up, and now the sun never sets but that Thomasville has
shipped a chair for every man, woman and child in the
towm. High Point was only a straggling country village
fifteen years ago, when three young men invested $9,000
in furniture manufacturing. To-day it ranks next to
Grand Rapids, Mich., in output of furniture; it can fur-
nish a house from cellar to garret except the piano (it will
make pianos before the end of the year), and has just
added street car and automobile making to its list of new
industries," and so the story goes, but time would fail me

In North Carolina. 179

to tell of similar enterprise at Durham, Greensboro, Char-
lotte, Gastonia, etc., showing that 'southward the star of
empire takes its flight.' "

These figures stagger us, and yet they are just a frac-
tional part of our prosperity. They cannot convey to
our minds even the faintest conception of the material
development and rapidly increasing wealth of the new
South. Unless God sends some disaster upon the country,
or in some way stops the mill of prosperity that is grind-
ing out its products in streams of gold, the human mind
can scarcely comprehend the wealth of the South fifty
years hence. Who can estimate its influence on the char-
acter of the people ? Is the church keeping pace with this
material prosperity?

4. This leads to the concluding suggestion that this
Industrial Awakening of the South calls for a correspond-
ing spiritual awakening of the church, to the fact that
Home Missions is the supreme need of the hour. How
otherwise shall we contend with the spirit of commercial-
ism, threatening to engulf the entire country in its in-
satiable vortex of destruction. Tides of population once
rolling westward will soon be sweeping in upon the South,
attracted hither by this marvellous prosperil;y. Either we
must evangelize our people or they will commercialize us.
Other Christian countries have degenerated into a mere
form of godliness, having lost absolutely the spirit and
vital power of Christianity. Where is Jerusalem, the
mother church? Where are Antioch, Alexandria, Ephe-
sus and Rome, once great centers of religious life and
spiritual power? History repeats itself; and our Chris-
tian civilization may perish as effectually in the grasp of
commercialism as any of the powerful churches in the
past, at the hands of their deadly foes. The church of
to-day has not a moment to lose. She needs to gird her-

i8o The Presbyterian Church

self for the tremendous conflict of the next quarter of a
century in this country. If the battle is lost, who can
forecast its influence on the ultimate destiny of the world ?
Who can tell if it may postpone the ultimate triumph
of the Gospel for centuries or millenniums? If never
before, we ought to appreciate the rallying cry of Home
iMissions, "Save America to save the world."

Everything in this age is being projected on a gigantic
scale. Great railroad combinations control the commerce
of whole States and aggregations of States. Great
monopolies throttle and banish from the field every sem-
blance of rival competitors. Great institutions mould
the thought of the nation. Is it a time for retrenchment
in the spiritual world? Do not the prevailing conditions
challenge the church to put forth her most Herculean
efforts to meet powerful worldly influences with more
powerful spiritual forces ? '^Not by might, nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord," and yet the Spirit of
God uses means. God might have employed legions of
angels. Instead he has ordained that the results should
be accomplished by human instrumentalities under the
operation of the Spirit. Will the church appreciate the
need of the hour and undertake a campaign on a gigantic
scale for the purpose of saving America? Where are her
loyal and liberal sons who will furnish the sinews of war?
Carnegie has flooded the country with public libraries.
John D. Rockefeller has contributed to Foreign Missions
hundreds of thousands of dollars and awakened an interest
in education by endowments reaching into the millions.
Hugh T. Inman has created an endcrwment for the relief
of aged and infirm ministers, which places them beyond
the reach of want. There are millionaires in the church
who have never yet awakened to the possibilities of spirit-
ual good in their vast and growing fortunes. Where are

In North Carolina. i8i

the men who will immortalize their names by linking them
forever with the great cause of Home Missions? Where
are the men who will feel the burden of their country and
lay their thousands upon the altar of the church, as in the
early days of Christianity, when whole fortunes were laid
at the Apostles' feet. Better still, will the entire church
awake to her opportunity of winning our own nation for
Christ and her responsibility for countless lost souls at
our very door?

MISSION WORK.

By Rev. Wm. Black.

Mission work is work done by one sent, and, as ap-
plied to the gospel, is work done by one sent by the Lord
Jesus Christ; and in this great work he, himself, was a
missionary, having been sent by the Father, as is de-
clared in John iii. i6; and in announcing his own mission
he says: 'The Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that v^hich was lost."

The right of a church to exist at all must rest upon
its obedience and fideHty to the great principles enunciated
by its founder, and by which it was authorized. The
mission church is, therefore, the only church which could
claim to be following his teachings or walking in his foot-
steps. The greatest clarion call ever made to the Chris-
tian is to be found in the w^ords of the Great Commission,
and as Christ has made that call to the church, so he has
commanded the church to go forth on its mission, send-
ing forth this great call. To the unsaved she should be
ever saying "come," and to the Christian, "go." Com-
bining the words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ in the
Great Commission, as recorded in Matt., chapter xxviii.,
and Mark, chapter xvi., w^e have substantially these
words: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature, and make disciples of all nations, bap-
tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of 'the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

REV. wm- bLacK

In North Carolina. 183

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, but the
majority of professing Christians are much more inter-
ested in some form of worldhness than in any sort of
work for Christ. Is this not true of you ?

It is necessary to realize that every soul out of Christ
is lost. Do you ? Have you seen the great throng of men
and women — a thousand million of heathen, to say noth-
ing of the half-million of our own kith and kin in North
Carolina, out of Christ, marching down the rough path-
way of life to eternity, lost? Have you seen the shadows
of eternity, as they must very soon, grow dark upon
this vast multitude that have not made Jesus their
friend? If so^ are you moved with compassion and pity
for them? If not, pray the Lord to open your eyes that
you may see, unstop your ears, that you may hear the
cry of the lost, and say, "Here am I, send me.'' This
realization is necessary — in fact, is the very main-spring
and starting-point of all evangelistic activity, and you
will never be an earnest worker till the vision of lost
souls has so seized upon your own soul that you cannot
shake it off, until you have gone forth to their rescue.
May it come upon every one who reads these lines, is
the prayer of the writer.

Let us, then, prayerfully examine this wonderful com-
mission, with a heart-felt desire to know more of its re-
quirements, make better use of its privileges, rejoice
more in its honors, and reap more of its blessed rewards.
It is certainly, not only the most sacred, but the greatest
commission ever sent forth, and this is true because, (i)
Its source, being from the King of kings and Lord of
lords. (2) The issue involved, eternal life and eternal
death. (3) The peoples included, the whole world.
(4) The time it covers, to the end of the age; and lastly,

184 The Presbyterian Church

the workers appointed, tlie largest numbers and the finest
characters.

But, to be more specific, what of its command? What
of the duties? Notice first, We are to "Go."

*'Go ye/' is authority, not only for the persons then
within the sound of our Saviour's voice, but for every
person who is to do any sort of mission w^ork from then
until the end of time ; but not only is it authority for, but
it is a command to every Christian, that cannot be lightly
treated or set aside, but must be obeyed ; and it is a com-
mand, to be sure, to every minister of the gospel, to
every church, and therefore to every member of the
church ; it is to the officers, and especially the elders and
deacons, to every Sunday-school teacher and every mis-
sionary society, and to any and every Christian that has
'^Heafd," not only to say ''come," but a command to ''go."

If, in the Synod of North Carolina, where there are
186 ministers, 1,440 elders, 1,357 deacons, 3,000 Sunday-
school teachers, and about 41,000 members, every one
should hear and obey this blessed command, would "Go,"
what a grand army of workers there would be for the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to consider that this
command has been standing for nearly two thousand
years, and that there are to-day more persons out of
Christ than ever before, and when we compare it with
the work done in the first century, it is enough to make
us stand appalled at our failure. At Thessalonica, the
enemies of Christ declared that these "two men (Paul
and Silas) had turned the zvorld upside down." Oh!
that we Christians of to-day might be filled with the
same love for souls, the same spirit of the Master, and
the same power to do good.

Let us notice carefully, too, that when the Saviour
says "Go," we have not fulfilled this command simply by

In North Carolina. 185

building churches, preaching our sermons, teaching our
Sunday-school lessons, holding our missionary society
meetings, and attending upon the services ourselves, un-
less indeed, we have made these exercises so attractive
that the unsaved come and hear and are saved, so that
if the unsaved do not come to the churches, we must go
to them, or our skirts are not clear ; and that they, very
many of them, are not coming, are not being reached,
is evident, for many of them never darken a church door,
yet many of us have taken false comfort from the fact
that there was a church, a gospel preached, and that we
had helped in it; but let us remember that we are not
merely attempting to discharge a duty, but are endeavor-
ing, if we have the spirit of the Master, to reach the tin-
saved. It is one of the saddest facts with which we are
confronted to-day, that the masses are not being reached.
Few of the churches have more than half as many to
attend upon the services as there are communicants
upon the roll, so it is apparent that not even the church
members attend with any regularity, much less are all
the church members making any effort to reach the un-
saved. Why is this? Many reasons might be given,
but perhaps the best one could be found in the fact that
there is a want of powder to attract and power to save
in the multiplied services, preaching and otherwise, which
we have. Our Saviour's command was that ''all are to
GO, and to go to all," so when we come to consider how
little help many ministers have from the church members,
in carrying the gospel "to every creature," we have an-
other explanation of why so few come to the services, and
perhaps of why so few are reached. In apostolic times,
we are told, "They that were scattered abroad went
everywhere preaching the Word," and in the first verse
of this same chapter, we are told that they were all scat-

i86 The Presbyterian Church

tered except the apostles, so that it is evident that they
that were scattered and went everywhere preaching the
Word, making direct efforts to save men, were not or-
dained ministers, but were simply professing Christians —
private members.

If we were to keep within the limitation of this Great
Commission, perhaps our services in the pulpit, in the
Sunday-school, and elsewhere, would not only be more
attractive, but have more power. Note that the limita-
tion was that they should preach the gospel, and the
gospel only, for it is quite possible for us, when preaching
and teaching, to be very orthodox, and to tell much of
the historical facts, of the geography, geology and other
truths of the Bible, and yet not be preaching the gospel,
for, as some one has well said, we should, when preaching
and teaching, be sure to have both a subject and an
object. Let the subject be the gospel, and the object
the salvation of souls and the edification of believers,
and with God's blessing upon us, we can scarcely fail
of doing good ; but, alas, how much of this preaching
and teaching seems to have other subjects than the gos-
pel and other objects than the salvation of souls or edi-
fication of believers; in short, is pointless, objectless, and,
therefore, powerless.

This Great Commission has a declaration attached in
the form of a most blessed promise, which is most en-
couraging, and I am sure that no one is authorized, or
expected to accept the command to go preach the gospel,
without also accepting, in good faith, the blessed promise.
What is this promise? '^Lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world." Here we have the promise
of the presence of Jesus with us, an almighty, willing,
anxious and able helper.

Notice that this promise meant much to the apostles,

In North Carolina. 187

disciples and early Christians, indeed, even the apostles
themselves were not permitted to accept the Great Com-
mission and go forth to preach the gospel, until they had
realized what His presence with them meant. It had no
mystical, shadowy meaning to them, and none such is
intended now. It is true they spoke with tongues and
performed miracles, but it is also true that they were
clothed with great power to preach and teach and speak
for their Lord and Master.

The statement of the text is, "I am with you alway."
No one doubts that the command to go and preach the
gospel is in force now, and will last until the end of time ;
can it be that the command is in force, and that the
promise is not? or, in other words, that we are com-
manded to go and preach, but have no promise of his
help? Surely not. If the disciples, who had been taught
by our Saviour, face to face, needed the Spirit's help,
surely we do, and yet there are so many to-day, we fear,
to whom this promise, "Lo, I am with you alway," means
really nothing. Shall we not pray that we may have a
realization of what this promise means? We need this
help to lead us in the right way ourselves, to keep us
from self-dependence and self-help of all kinds, to make
us humble, and to guide us, not only in the use of our
words, but to keep these words from being as a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal, for when the Word is
preached or taught, without the power of the Spirit, it
perhaps hardens the human heart as nothing else will do.

We need, too, the help of the Holy Spirit to show us
the necessity for work, to enable us to use our opportuni-
ties, to give us a love for the work, and above all, for
power, so that we may preach, teach, speak and live in
such way that souls shall be saved. Observe that we were
directed in this Great Commission to make disciples. Are

i88 The Presbyterian Church

you doing it? If not, why not? After the disciples are
made, we are to teach them to observe all things that
Christ has commanded them. At Pentecost, when the
apostles were filled with the Spirit, in one sermon, three
thousand souls were saved, and within a few days more,
the number had increased, we are told, to five thousand.
Why is it that we have no such power now? The
promise stands, and, moreover, our Saviour teaches us,
not only in this commission itself, but in numerous other
Scriptures, to expect results. He has declared in the fif-
teenth chapter of John's Gospel, ''Herein is my Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit."

Is it not a fact that not very many souls are being
saved, that professing Christians, most of them, are cold
and apathetical, with little love for souls, and with little
or no enthusiasm in the service of the Master? If so, are
we satisfied for this state of afifairs to continue?

Multiplying agencies is not enough; what we need is
power, and we can and will have the power when we
fulfill the conditions; that is to say, if we, ourselves, the
church members are, (i) filled with the Spirit, and (2)
filled with love for souls, filled with the knowledge of the
Word, and will go to the people, even unto the highways
and hedges, we can and will compel them to come in and
hear the Word, and they will be saved. We can go our-
selves, and we can, by our means, send others, and we
should not be discouraged by past failures, but face
squarely the facts and realize what they mean. First,
that for 1,900 years the church has paid little attention
to this Great Commission, to go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature, and secondly, that
the difficulties are not growing less, but larger. Third,
that every one who fails to do his duty is a hinderer, and
lastly, that we need for ourselves and others, not to save

In North Carolina. 189

alone our souls, but our lives, and enlist them in this
great work. This done, the church must surely grow,
for growth is the law of life, and action is the law of
growth. God's law is, use or lose, and He destroyed the
Jewish Church as it then existed, in part, because of its
failure to perform the work given it to do. Any church
that neglects or refuses to go forth, carrying the gospel
to the unsaved, is surely inviting the judgment of the
Lord upon it. Let us, therefore, awake to our responsi-
bility, to ourselves, that we may be right, and to our fel-
low men, that they may be helped, and especially to those
who are out of Christ, that they may be saved, for the
church at home is, as it were, the engine of all mission
work at home and in foreign lands, therefore, we must
live the Christ life ourselves and have a religion worth
sending before we can successfully carry or send the gos-
pel to the unsaved.

There never was and never will be enough preachers
to do this work at home or abroad; in fact, it was never
intended that they should, but on the other hand, every
Christian has been given a part in the work, for our
Saviour said, ''Gave unto every man his work," and not
only so, but it is equally true that the opportunities of
the private members are frequently not less than those
of the ministers, and as all have opportunities, it follows
that all have a corresponding responsibility.

Let us, then, give cheerfully ourselves, our means, our
sons and our daughters, our all, to the accomplishment
of this work, and do this, not simply as a duty, but as
a great privilege, for in so doing, the reflex influence
must tell most powerfully upon us and our churches.
Remember, it is the still pond and not the running river
that freezes and stagnates ; if, therefore, in our churches,
our homes, and our hearts, there is spiritual freezing and

190 The Presbyterian Church

stagnation, the cause must be evident. We are not ac-
tively engaged in the Master's work, not going to the
unsaved, and therefore, spiritual apathy, almost akin to
death, has seized upon us. Let us at once remove the
cause, not only for the sake of the unsaved, but for our
own sake. It is no small sin to be lukewarm, and to feel
that we have need of nothing, self-satisfied, for the ter-
rible denunciation pronounced by our Saviour upon such,
shows how such conduct is viewed by Him.

Are you a neglecter of work? Remember, a neglecter
of work is a delayer of work. Delay it no longer. A
million of years would not be sufficient to do the work at
the present rate, and when we consider, that instead of
having ages in which to do the work, the time is limited ;
limited both as to the worker and the work. We who
are to do the work have only a short time in which to
reach the unsaved, for soon, our sun will be swinging
toward the west, and life's little day will be gone, and
with it our opportunity also ; then, too, if we had the
time ourselves, the lost are dying every day, and dying
without Christ, not only in heathen lands, but in your
congregation, sometimes in your own family. What did
you do to rescue them?

Let us preach, teach and live Christ, for there has
been entirely too much of everything else. Our multipli-
cation of agencies, societies, committees, asylums, and
what not, does not reach and does not accomplish what
grace and consecration, by the help of the Spirit, alone
can do. Let Christ be the starting, the rallying and the
radiating point for every Christian ; let Him be our
Wisdom and our Power. Let us bear his image, be so
filled with His thoughts that we shall speak powerfully
of Him and for Him. Expression is but the result of
impression. If we, therefore, have not been impressed

In North Carolina. 191

with the necessity for doing mission work^ and of our
obhgation to go and carry the gospel to the unsaved,
how can we hope to express, with any power, this nec-
^sity upon others, or reach the unsaved when speaking
to them?

Let us pray, too, for workers, and for the work, and
work ourselves, praying as if all depended on God, and
working as if all depended on us. We have riches and
education and social standing. Do these things separate
us from the people? If so, they are a peril and not a
blessing, but, guided by the Spirit, these things should be
a power for good in our hands. If we can but realize
the sacred trust committed to us, and appreciate the great
privilege of carrying this gospel to the unsaved, we shall
have, as a reflex influence, more assurance that we are
God's children, more joy in His service, as well as more
success in what we undertake for Him ; it will build up
our churches and give them new life and new power.
Remember, that a tallow dip that gives light is better
than a golden chandelier without flame. Be sure that
you live a helpful life and begin it now ; while you wait,
souls perish. What a splendid opportunity our elders,
deacons and Sunday-school teachers, and in fact, every
private member has, for they are of the people and among
the people, in just the place and with just the knowledge
of their needs to enable them to do the greatest good.
Decide now that you will undertake to win a soul for
Jesus every time you have the opportunity.

"Have you found the heavenly light? Pass it on;
Souls are groping in the night, daylight gone;
Hold thy lighted lamp on high,
Be a star in some one's sky;

He may live, who else would die; pass it on."

ig2 The Presbyterian Church

Are you ready to say — will you — do you now say,
"What shall I do, Lord?" Say it now.

"Hark, the voice of Jesus crying,

Who will go and work to-day?
Fields are white and harvest waiting.

Who will bear the sheaves away?
Loud and strong the Master calleth.

Rich reward he offers thee:
Who will answer, gladly saying,

Here am I; send me, send me?

"If you cannot speak like angels,

If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus;

You can say, He died for all.
If you cannot rouse the wicked

With the judgment's dread alarms.
You can lead the little children

To the Saviour's waiting arms."

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